a good surprise: priceless.

You know that TV ad about the woman who uses her Chase bank card reward points to buy a swanky dress that looks like it belongs on the Pharoah's wife?

The point of the ad being that she can use her reward points on anything she wants...

we happen to have a similar program.

I cashed in some points this week.

Guess what we used our Rewards Points for?

(HINT: I don't care a whole lot for pricey dresses)

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the post about feeling like a volcano

I'm feelin' that

HAPPY

bubble up from inside...

-and-

I think I'm gonna BLOW!

sugar or salt?

...I guess it doesn't matter.
We attended our church's annual chili/chowder cook-off Saturday evening, which also includes competitions for breads and pies. The kids wanted in on the action, and a Snickers Pie was the choice of the youngest entrant. As we were whipping the cream just before we walked out the door, I dipped my finger in to taste, and realized I had mixed up my bulk salt container with what I had thought was sugar. Salty Cream. Ever had your cream salted?... I can't recommend it.
Luckily, we had a can of spray whipped cream in the fridge that we put on instead.
Unluckily, we had used the salt to make the crushed chocolate wafer crust, instead of sugar.
Luckily, the entries were anonymous, so we didn't have to own up to the salty disaster.
Also luckily, the judges must have thought the combination of salt and sweet was just right, because look who walked away with first prize!
...and his salty expression became suddenly sweet.

fall is glowing

I couldn't let the colors of the season pass without paying tribute.

I drove past our good friends' house, and had to turn around and drive up their driveway to take some pictures.

This past weekend must have been peak foliage weekend here. This picture was taken on our street. We were rushing to get to the library before it closed, and I couldn't help myself. I had to stop again!

And this tree overlooks our driveway.

Everything was glowing!

sugar and spice... everything nice.

That's what little girls dream of.

It's paper dress day.

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They're so fashionable, don't you think?

Seriously?!?

Sporting a fever + sleep = strong potential for dreaming while under the influence (of the fever)

I thought I had strange dreams.

Trumpetboy woke up and told me about his "trip-py" dream while I was making breakfast and packing lunches in the kitchen. I was keeping busy with one ear open. Until he got started. Then I had to stop what I was doing to focus on the amazing details and to hold my jaw up, because he definitely wins the prize for most bizarre brain functions while asleep.

He said he dreamed that he was asleep in his bed, and could see himself from above. (That freaked me out just a bit--did he have an out-of-body experience while I was scrambling eggs?!) Then he told me that there were five other 'hims' sitting around his bed. Yep--trumpet boy in bed, and five more trumpetboys sitting at his bedside, all dressed differently. He started to talk to them about social hierarchy and personal relationships. He talked about the social pyramid in Ancient Egypt and then the conversation evolved into a book discussion about Lord of the Flies, and the dominance-subordination relationships that emerged, as all of the boys were equals at first. It was an in-depth lecture on the evolution of the centralization of power, and ended with talking about how the boys (in the book) ended up killing each other. Suddenly the five other 'hims' started trying to kill him in his bed, and then he woke up.

Really?! I mean, who dreams up stuff like that?

Not SWOON-ing

SWINE-ing. That's what our doctor told us yesterday afternoon when I brought my patient in. Liquids, liquids, liquids. He also said that. Then he sent me home for the rest of the kids and ordered them back to the office for the vaccine.
It went something like this: "Hey! I'm home! Did you guys have a good day at school? Great! Now let's hop back in the car everyone, and go get shots!" Good times.

I wasn't really surprised; trumpetboy had complained of a sore throat and was up at night coughing for about a week. He stayed home from church Sunday, and stopped caring about what we were having for dinner. When, in an attempt to help organize his room on Monday, I showed him the shoe organizer I bought for his door and asked "do you know what this is?" his response was "A blanket?" I started having my suspicions...

In the spirit of wringing every ounce of fun out of something dreary, he colored his mask to augment the startle effect. Might as well; he's in for five days of solitary confinement.

And this continues to be my very good friend.

Go Climb a Tree

Do your part: write something.

October IS a good month.
The U.S. Senate spent a few minutes up to some good.
Earlier this month, they voted to approve a resolution that designates today as The National Day on Writing. (Why not Day OF Writing?)

Whereas, blah, blah, blah and etc.
it was:
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) supports the designation of October 20, 2009, as the National Day on Writing;
(2) strongly affirms the purposes of the National Day on Writing and encourages participation in the National Gallery of Writing, which serves as an exemplary living archive of the centrality of writing in the lives of Americans; and
(3) encourages educational institutions, businesses, community and civic associations, and other organizations to promote awareness of the National Day on Writing and celebrate the writing of their members through individual submissions to the National Gallery of Writing.

Here's my bit for the cause:

I wrote a letter to a friend,
I hope it finds her well.

re-tired. and staying fire-d.

So the man-o-the-morning and I were driving about town today, and we passed a house displaying a propane tank pumpkin. It's true. A clever decoration for a great month. A propane tank, yes it was. It was painted a cheery orange, with a jack-o-lantern face on it. Cute, too. He noticed it, and starts telling me about the "thing under the place where you cook outside that's decorated like a Halloween pumpkin..." and I instantly know what he's talking about, even though I didn't happen to glance that way this time by.
(I'm thinking I'm going to have to drive over there again and snap a picture, just so you can have a looksee.) Of course when you live in a place for 20 years (I know! How'd that happen?!) there's a bit of history 'round every bend.
I tell him that the propane tank pumpkin just happens to live at the house of his big brother's kindergarten teacher. Then I explain that she no longer teaches kindergarten (seeing as how kindergarten is looming in his future), and he immediately wants to know if she has moved up to the High School, where his brother is now. I tell him that she doesn't work as a teacher anymore, and that she is retired.
"Oh" he says. "That means that she's tired of teaching, and now she just stays at home. Right?" Yes, my man. That is right.

And just so I can don my imaginary cape of wonder before calling it a day, I will let you know that before we took our road trip it dawned on me that I should probably brush my teeth. It just so happens, however, that about three minutes before this realization, I popped an atomic fire ball into my mouth. Just re-fueling the tank. I was enjoying its fiery sweetness, and didn't want to spit it out to brush. So I went ahead with my brushing plans and maneuvered that thing over the tongue, past the gums and around the teeth that weren't being scrubbed. It was genius. Suck on sugar, brush it off. Suck on sugar, brush-y brush. A win-win in my book.

dreams DO come true!

Yesterday:

TODAY!!!

The Singing Sister Johnson Theory

My musical daughter has convinced me that the strangest phenomenon exists in the church worldwide.After talking to two very reliable sources in two different geographic locales, (female cousin counterparts) she found out that they, like us, have a Sister Johnson in their ward who sings. Imagine! She has therefore come to the conclusion that EVERY ward has a Sister Johnson who loves to sing. It's a pretty strong argument. She has based her assumption on some solid field work. If she's done the research and insists there is validity to her hypothesis, it must be true. Amazing discoveries like this merit the blog.

(Our Sister Johnson is even more beautiful than the lovely singing lady above)Chime in here: is there a singing Sister Johnson in your ward?

Cutting for Stone

Enjoyed this book immensely. All 534 pages of it. It was definitely a commitment--a relaxing sort of commitment, like committing to a mini-series with a cozy fire and a bowl of popcorn. One of my favorite quotes in the book (and there were more than a few):
"Call me old-fashioned, but I've always believed that hard work pays off."
Thomas Stone is a surgeon working in an Ethiopian Mission Hospital. The story weaves through two generations and a likeable cast of characters who live and work there in times of peace and in times of civil unrest.
"Life: You live it forward but understand it backward."
This is a fitting quote that defines the plot of the story, as it unfolds.
I was fascinated by the medical aspect of this book. Borrowing from a book review by Mark Salzman, "This book has everything: nuns, conjoined twins, civil war and medicine. If Vikram Seth and Oliver Sacks were to collaborate on a four-hour episode of Grey's Anatomy set in Africa, they could only hope to come up with something this moving and entertaining."
I felt the author's love for his characters. Especially the ones we might find distasteful if we were to encounter them in our life's path. My take away:
"Make something beautiful of your life."
It was marvelous.

"That's illegal!"

We woke up to fluffy white stuff falling from the skies this morning...Same view from the deck, but SNOW?!?

On October 16th?!!?

One of the kids was ecstatic, one indifferent, one speechless

and another one exclaimed "That's illegal!"

view from the deck (or 7-up)

taking a leave of absense

Might be short, might be long.
I'll be back. I'll probably be stocked up on some good fish tales by then, too.
xo

It's a Happy Birth-Day

FIVE years old!

And because a birthday is somehow just not complete without the happy dance, you can head on over here.

Five Days Without Roonie

She's off to Nature's Classroom!

For the WEEK!

She will have a great time.

And we'll miss her~

Four Sessions

of General Conference enjoyed [immensely] from the comfort of the couch.

Sunday Brunch! It only happens twice a year.

Temperance. And other food for thought.

Grilled steak kabobs for dinner.

It was a good day.

Third time's a charm

They say if you tell a dream three times, it's less likely to come true. Dub's heard it twice today, and he asked me if I was going to blog about it.

"Nah" I said. But then the dream-telling cancellation rumor bit came to mind.

So here goes:

Early this morning I woke to the memory of being at the mall (which is the first reason I knew it was only a dream) with the mother of one of my piano students. I was wearing layered tops over jeans, but the underneath shirt layer seemed to have a tendency to want to creep up beneath the top layer. As I bent over to pick something up, piano student mom told me that I should probably take care to tuck my muffin tops into my clothing, so I wouldn't be showcasing them to mall-goers in my general vicinity.

So hopefully the part of my dream that doesn't come true won't just be the part about hanging out at the mall.

October 2nd

Happy Birthday Nana.
I wonder if they have cakes in heaven?
If not, I'll bet she had a piece tucked in her purse before she passed.

I got to be Mystery Reader in third grade today. Third graders have a way of making you feel famous, when really, you're just someone's mom volunteering to read a story to the class. I'll take it.

Two rounds of UNO at the table on a Friday night, and we actually started to warm up to each other a bit before Dub had his fill.

Hooray for acquiring knowledge! I learned the engineer's definition of "slew rate" while giving Dub a haircut. He exclaimed "decrease your slew!" while I was running the buzzers up the back of his head. Although he admitted that he may have used it out of context, it was an entertaining conversation that made the chore of cutting hair go foom! and then we were having some abbreviated card-playing fun.

The first good thing about October

My boy off yonder called me this morning with happy news.
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Well, first of all, let me point out that HE CALLED.
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That would be enough.
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I love him!
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(I miss him)
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Yonder was excited about tomorrow night's BYU football game. And really, who wouldn't be? Nothing like a good college football game. But he was over-the-top happy because he has two complimentary tickets, right behind BYU's bench. And he's bringing a very nice and very happy girl to sit with. And he's hoping to make a profit off the two seats he had originally intended on sitting in. But most of all, he was all pumped up because he gets to act as Commandant at tomorrow night's flag raising ceremony. How cool will that be?! I kind of wish they showed that part of the pre-game on TV. But then again, if I saw him all decked out in his Air Force stuff looking so handsome in uniform and so very far away... I'd probably get blurry vision and not be able to really see him anyway.
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So, if any of you lucky blog-readers get to be at the game tomorrow night, do a mother a favor, will you?
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Zoom in on the tall blond guy with the flag harness.
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And send a good vibe across the crowd from me.