The Crossing Guard Caper

We have got quite the routine going in the morning.

We take the kids to early morning seminary at 6:50 every morning (that would be Hector 90%, me 10% cause I really don't like early mornings)

We come home, wake up the Samster and pop his Eggos in the toaster

Then I take Sammy over to the Jr. High at 7:40, which is on the way to seminary to pick up the big kids at 7:50 and take them to high school.

(Then I come home and get a call from them telling me what they forgot. This could range from something as large as a trumpet to something small like $5.00 for a gym lock (that was today), and everything in between. . . wrestling shoes, inhaler, nylons, spandex, a signed paper, a book or chocolate (Sarah asked me to bring her some 2 days ago. I didn't, although I can really feel her pain))

So, when I drop Sammy off at the corner of his Jr. High, there is the faithful crossing guard lady and every single day, she gives me a big smile and a friendly wave.

It makes my day!

It makes me think that I have something cute on, or my hair looks particularly stylish.

Perhaps she's noticed my new top, or pair of earrings!

Sometimes I think it is cause she wants to get to know me better. Perhaps I should invite her to church, or ask her over for hot cocoa?

Well, a week or two ago. . . we were running a bit late (shocker) and we had thrown all Sam's stuff in the car and ran. He was tying his shoes, putting his homework in his backpack, while I was feeding him his Eggo. So, I pulled over while we got him all put together. I looked up to see if my crossing guard friend had noticed I was here.

Maybe she would come and try to help us, since she cared so much?

Perhaps she would tie Sam's other shoe for him and press his hair down with her spit?

I looked over, and saw that she had not noticed us here. Weird. Should I honk, and let her know we had arrived, but were not ready yet?

Then I saw her wave at another car pulling up. 'Oh how NICE is she?" I thought.

Then I saw her wave at a car turning the other way. "Oh, did she know that man too?" I wondered.

Then I just sat and watched for a moment, starting to feel a little sick.

She waved at EVERY SINGLE CAR PASSING THROUGH HER INTERSECTION. With a big ole 'FRIENDLY' smile on her face.

The trucks, the service vehicles, the carpool moms, the business men on phones. She was waving indiscriminately to them all.

I felt duped. I felt like the crossing guard lady had cheated on me. I looked down and noticed that I did not have a new top on. It was my fleece pajama top covered with a hooded sweatshirt, which is what I wore almost every time I took Sam. I looked at my hair. Definite bed head. And I never put in earrings. Nothing stylish about me at this hour of the morning. I sat deflated as I kissed Sam goodbye and drove through her intersection.

She gave me her big smile and wave and I half heartedly lifted a few fingers in response. I wanted to ignore her. I felt like looking the other way, or maybe even rolling down my window and saying something really catty like. . . "Oh sure. . . .I'll BET you're happy to see me", but I didn't, because that would be really childish.

I think there is a lesson here and maybe someday, when the pain subsides, I will be able to see it more clearly. But until now, I'm just calling it the "Crossing Guard Caper". Or "The BiG SCAM". Or maybe "DUPED on the way to school". . . .

It was a HaPPy HaLLoWeenEN PaRtY Indeed!

Oh, I do love Halloween. I know many do not have the same love for this Pagan holiday as I, but for me there is nothin' NOT to love about Halloween.

Dressing up. . . FUN!
Free Candy. . . . DUH!
Meeting new friends at their homes as they give you free candy. . . . NO BRAINER!

This year Hector and I were in charge of our first ward activity in our new callings-Ward Activities Chairpeople!

It was a lot of work, and I now know many many things that I will do differently for the next activity. Most of them have to do with the word delegate.

Here are some pics of the fun. The poster to intice people to this joint. .

We had Halloween Carnival Games in the gym, with Trick or Treating at the doors around the church. I wish I had gotten pictures of the fabulous doors that families decorated, but this is where the delegation part comes in. Here are some of the games, some in action, some before the action!!
We had Pie Eatin'! Here are the adults. Clint is raising his hand to announce his victory, but it turns out that he was CHEATING and not actually all the way DONE! (I am pretty positive that Clint does not read this blog, but just in case. . . I am sure it was an honest mistake! :)

The Youth. Sarah has about zero chance of winning this round!

James has a little better chance than Sarah. . . . but not much.

This kid however. . . he was in it to win it!

The Carnie style Throw the Ball in the Cup games. . .

There was Face Paintin'
Sarah is enjoying painting Evan up!

The Toilet Paper Toss. This is an action shot of someone WINNING as the roll of T.P. enters the toilet bowl at the perfect trajectory!

Tara setting up for the Plate Toss.


Bean Bag Toss, the booth being run by some very handsome gentlemen!


The Fishin' Hole.
Brookie showing her catch!
The LolliPop Pull

The popular Duck Pond!


We had a cake walk! Here I am practicing my cake walk as we set up!
Some helpers! Savanna, Maddie and Sarah

And yes, we did the Mash. . .
We did the Monster Mash
We did the mash, it caught on like a flash. . . .

We did the Mash, we did the Monster Mash. . .

We did the mash, It was a graveyard smash!


At our Party, Eye Spied a Swimmer. . .

A Jelly Fish

A couple of lady bugs

Princess Laia

Humpty Dumpty!

Some sort of Wall E dude!
D.J. Lucas

A headless Sean

and a Cowboy Harrison



Thanks to all who helped make our Halloween Bash Spooktacularly Fun!! Next post. . . . the wonderful tradition of going house to house to get free candy!

We love the Apple Orchard

We love it so much much that we are willing to go in the FREEEEEZING Cold weather and BITING wind just so that we can fulfill our family tradition of Going To The Apple Orchard
We all go.

No matter what.


We are like the Postman. In cold or sleet or snow, we always, always go.

Have I mentioned that it was cold?


But it didn't matter, we went with some friends, (who really had no idea that it was so cold, because they are from Texas and we told them that it was really not so bad), and had a really fun time! They said this October day in Minnesota was like the coldest day ever in the thick of winter in Texas.
There was rubber duck racing. . . .
in some pink water. I asked why the water was pink and the man said that he put antifreeze in dere, so dat water don't freeze up dere. Oh, sure Antifreeze. The highly toxic sweet liquid that can kill a child with a sip. I later saw a kid sucking on his wet sleeve. I warned them of the possible death.

The kids then played Par Core on the hay bales. They acted like Michael Scott and Dwight Shrute yelling Par Core, Par Core romping all over the hay.
"PAR CORE!"
"PAR CORE!"

"PAR CORE!"

"PAR CORE!" (yeah, that is me. I had to attempt two jumps even to get my butt on the hay bale for a simple picture)


Sarah, Maddie and Somer. Oh, these girls are too cute.

The kids. . . Jake, Sarah, Maddie, Josh, Sam, (up top) Somer, James and Andrew

Jake, Sarah and Hector on the Apple Express!!

Here we are chilly but happy at the orchard

Our friends from Texas, loving the exhilerating crisp of the Minnesota air!

We saw a pretty eyed cow,

An ornery Billy Goat,

and a bloated dead rat


We rode on a hay ride to see the orchard and punkin patch,


and the kids almost got kicked out of the orchard by having wagon races down the hill, narrowly taking out fellow apple worshippers.



Then Hector found a portable propare heater which we turned on to keep the frostbite from setting in. We huddled around under it, ate fresh apple donuts and drank our hot cocoa, while the kids played unsupervised.


Hector decided to roast the hot cocoa marshmellows on our caramel apple pop sticks.

Not a bad idea honey!!

And of course we got our fresh picked HoneyCrisp apples. THE BEST!!!
It turned out to be a really beautiful day at the Apple Orchard! Minnesota in the fall can be a bit sketchy, but it just makes you appreciate the sunshine all that much more!!







Happy Fall!

Real Women Play Laser Tag

Now, I did not say Real Women WIN Laser Tag, cause that would not be realistic. How can cute SUV driving moms in their 40's compete with teenage boys who could conceivably get a merit badge in virtual killing?

Well, they can't,. . .and I'm good with that.

Here are Mitch, Devon, Sam and James. I understand they are making gun signs. They are not gang members, only young boys about to go and school their moms in the finer art of marksmanship.

I whole heartedly recommend laser tag to any woman who thinks it is not for her.
We had a complete riot playing laser tag. In fact, I was very surprised at how much energy and passion we had for the game.
Shelley, Alli and Michelle

Actually, it was very therapeutic. I can only speak for myself, but I kinda lost my head and got into that War Mentality. Every time I shot a member of the blue team, I would scream. . . "SUCKAAAA!!" loudly, and duck down and take cover. I would sometime shoot them after their light had gone out. Here is a great shot of Shelley and Michelle in action in the pit.

Within minutes, I was fully immersed in the game, getting out my aggression with very satisfying "kills". I yelled for people to cover me, I reminded people loudly of the rules when I felt they were being broken, even if I was breaking them myself, and I emerged sweaty and somehow cleansed.
I think there is a syndrome for what happened in the laser tag hollow. But for now, I am just going to say. . . Go play a game of laser tag, it'll do ya good!

"I threw it on the GROUND!"

Here you have our new fave SNL skit with Andy Samberg. Please ignore short cuss word.

Andy Samberg - I Threw it On The Ground - watch more funny videos

Love it. Love it so much that I have taken to quoting it at appropriate times. "I'm an ADULT!" . . . . "My Dad is not a CELL PHONE!". . . . "Happy Birthday to the GROUND"!!

Summer 2009 Part Deux

The week the cousins came a callin'

One of the best weeks of the summer was when Jennifer (my sister in law) had a wedding to go to in SLC, and brought our sweet little curly headed cousins to play with us for 4 days! We had so much fun with them as I tried to secure my place solidly in the favorite aunt slot. (I think I have two others to compete with. . .but after this week, I think I got it in the bag!) During our 4 days we went to the zoo and had cotton candy. We ate snowcones and ice cream, went on the zip line and in the monkey house. We went on rides and had a water balloon war. We went to a teddy bear concert at the park. We went on the boat and went tubing and swam in the lake. We watched movies and went to Dairy Queen. We played play dough and on the trampoline. We read stories and played Polly Pockets and went to McDonalds. After it was all said and done, I figured that I needed about 4 days to recover! I ain't as young as I used to be folks. It was truly delightful! Here are some highlights of our time together. . . Our picnic outside the zoo. . .
Little Aubri

We saw a mama orangutan and her baby!

Here we are getting ready to watch Sparky the Sealion.

There was some music playing and Aubri decided to go over to the pole and do some dancing! Notice the hand~

Here she goes. . .

Work it Aubri. . .

I like to move it, move it!
All the single ladies. . .

You go little curly headed dancin' machine!

Here she is busting a move a little closer to Sparky! Sparky, by the way, was of minimal entertainment value when compared to the show that Aubri put on!

Enjoying a little of that cotton candy I was tellin ya about. All that dancing makes a little girl peakish.


Here's Abby by the Sea Lions
Water balloon Wars!!
James and Sammy versus. . .

Sarah and Abby!


Abby tackling the zip line!

The dinosaur bone park was pretty awesome.


Abby and Sarah ride the roller coaster. I think this might have been Abby's first time on a roller coaster- the look of terror was real in her eyes, but as it slowed down, the smile came out. She did it!!

Teddy Bear Concert in the Park- moved to the indoor park due to weather concerns. This is Minnesota, we always have an alternate plan! Aubri and Aunty Alli waiting for the concert to begin.
Sissy and Abby with teddys!

Eye Spy the curly head watching the concert!

Abby cutting a rug to the Teddy Bear Tunes!


Luckily in the indoor park there is an ice cream parlor!

Our day at the lake will have to be in Summer 2009 Part Tres, as the pictures are on Jake's laptop. Thanks for the lovin' Abby and Aubri. . . you can come and visit us ANY time!!

Yeah, I think it's over. All over

As we woke up last week to temps in the 20's and the ground looking like this:

I think I finally resigned myself to the fact that the joyride is over. Our MN summer, which we treasure each day of like a precious, priceless gift from God. . . . is over. O v e r. And I have not even begun to blog all of the adventures that we had over the summer. So, I am going to recap and give an 'end of summer' summary. . . .

Put on your seatbelts and hold onto your ponytails. . . .
Cause here comes our Summer 2009, Part I

We went to a tye-die party, hosted by the Queen of tye-die, Alaya!
Me, Sandy (Alaya's Mom) and The Alaya

The boys getting their creative on
Sarahs' tye-died feet!

Some finished products!
We made some new friends and took them out to our favorite lake. . .Elmo!
Steve, Maddie, Sarah and Somer

Some cute girls!


Alex, Josh and James taking a wild ride!

Jake, Steve and James- will feel this tomorrow.


Maddie, Somer and Sarah, enjoying the last of the sun. . .

before the clouds set in. . .


We learned to knee board!
ME rock n' rollin' on the kneeboard!!

Jacob showing his kneeboarding skills

James having some fun on the new board.


Jacob teaching his sister how it is done. . .

Sarah rockin' it!!

We went on the St. Croix River. . .
We docked our boat here. . .

And went to eat dinner at a Mexican Cafe in Wisconsin! Me n' my honey

Darrell and Shelley. Oh, the summer tans. sigh
I love this retro pic of Sarah. Can I blow it up and frame it?

My little Sam I Am
More of my Sarah. .


We said goodbye to good ole' Isobelle and hello to our new snappy Elantra. . .
Aww, Isobelle we'll miss so much about you. . . likethe way your window wouldn't roll up without us physically pushing it. . .

Ellie the Elantra!


We went to Red Wing, Minnesota with our friends to spend the night and have some fun. . .
A large Red Wing Mural and some very cute girls. . .
Sarah and Savannah takin' a walk in Red Wing
Michelle and I doing some waterskiing behind the Mississippi Queen

Just hanging by the lamp post. . .


The mural provided lots of fun.


This is the world's largest boot.

AAAAHHHHHHHHH
Sarah got her BRACES OFF!!!
BEFORE:






AFTER:

And Sammy learned to cut hair. . .

Summer Part II will be coming soon, cause I just can't stand to let go!
Good Bye Summer, I will miss you like a child misses her blankie. . .