Girls Weekend

It's a Sunday afternoon and I unexpectedly find myself with a few spare minutes.  There are honey wheat rolls rising and a roast cooking. We have company here (Brandon is home and he brought his girlfriend Angela for Thanksgiving) and more to arrive in two days (Angela's parents are flying here from Florida).

But right now the college-age kids left to visit a friend, Bailey left to drive Aubrey to a song practice, and Joseph is busy being Super Agent Spy guy (or something like that).  Dan is taking a well-deserved nap (2 more days of early morning Seminary this week before the Thanksgiving break).

So I am going to upload a few pictures from last week. We had a very busy last weekend. Bailey, Aubrey, and I went to Time Out for Women and Girls in Portland on Friday night and all day Saturday. Dan and Joseph were at home, but Dan was preparing to deejay a stake youth dance on Saturday, so he spent the entire day preparing his equipment and music before dropping Joseph off at a friend's house for the evening.  Everything turned out great, but it was a hectic weekend.

The girls and I had a fabulous time in Portland. The speakers and music at the conference were awesome. The girls met another one of their favorite church speakers, Hank Smith (last year they met John Bytheway). For lunch we walked a mile in the light rain to Chipotle and then hustled back in time for more speakers. The girls were in one conference room and the women were in another.

Me and some of my good friends.

Get us away from all our responsibilities and we go a little crazy!

 The girls and Hank Smith.

After the Conference concluded, we spent the rest of the day in Portland. Because . . . we had tickets to go to the Michael Buble concert that night!

This is how that bit of wonderfulness came about: way back in the springtime, Buble tickets were offered for sale and I decided to buy tickets for Dan and I to attend as a special gift for him. Dan has always wanted to attend a Michael Buble concert. When Bailey heard, she begged to go also and offered to buy her own ticket. Aubrey was undecided about the concert and didn't want to pay for the ticket.

Fast forward six months, and it turned out that the weekend of the concert was jam-packed busy. Not only was the Time Out for Women & Girls scheduled that day (and the girls wouldn't hear of skipping it), but Dan wasn't even able to attend the concert because he was responsible for deejaying a stake dance. He didn't feel good about turning the dance over to someone else, so in the end Aubrey got his ticket and we three girls spend a fantastic evening singing along to the "smooth as butter" tones of Michael Buble.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but Buble was only a few rows in front of us.We had great seats, and he came to sing on a stage at the back of the floor seats. We were just behind where he was singing.

I thought Bailey was going to pass out - she was so excited! The three of us held hands and danced along to most of the songs.

 At this point in the concert red paper hearts floated down from the ceiling.

 It was a spectacular concert. I have to admit that it would have been even better to be there with my honey, as the music is very romantic, but I did have a wonderful time spending the day and night with my favorite girls!

I live in a beautiful place

Beautiful Autumn. Beautiful Vancouver.

  

Fall Wisdom

"Autumn is all about letting go. 

Leaves flutter to the ground. 

Flowers launch seeds into the wind. 

Pumpkins loosen ties with mellowed vines. 

It's time for gardeners to let go, too. 

Frost reminds us that we're not in charge, after all. 

How do we let go? 

Laugh at our failures- but don't repeat them. 

Be amused by perennials intent on taking over the world - then mark them for dividing next spring. 

You get the idea. Observe. Learn. Let go."

(I saw this in a magazine and liked it.  Good advice, I think.)

11.12.13

I don't have any specific plan for this post, but this is such a cool date (11/12/13) that I just have to document something.

I was on a roll for awhile with blog catch-up. But then my annoying computer problems became more  serious. Our computer is having some age-related issues, such as not wanting to move, getting stuck, and forgetting what it is supposed to be doing. This means that it freezes and crashes constantly, especially when I am trying to use my photoshop program. It's really a pain in the neck and has caused me to want to throw the monstrosity out the window. Our printer has chosen this same time to die an ignominious death. I bought a new printer and now I need to set it up. I read the instruction manual and it was clear to me that a computer science degree is required to accomplish the task, so I'm waiting until my smart college student comes home for Thanksgiving. I will make him a mutually beneficial deal - I will feed him feed him a delicious Thanksgiving dinner if he diagnoses and solves all my computer issues. He also needs to help us make a big decision . . . should our next desktop computer be another PC or a Mac?

Life is humming along, busy and good. Way off in Provo, Brandon is super busy with school, work, and various editing freelance activities. Bailey is busy with lots of schoolwork, volunteering, ASB work, babysitting, and listening to the latest music on Pandora. Aubrey is busy with schoolwork, children's theater, vocal and piano lessons, and listening to the latest musicals on itunes. Joseph is busy with school, finishing up soccer, beginning basketball, (complaining about) piano, and finagling more time to play Minecraft. Oh, and he started his own blog. It's private, so if you want an invitation let me know. He really, really wants comments on his posts, so if you read it leave him a note!

Joseph has also decided it is time for him to grow up. Growing up is currently defined by eschewing Superhero underwear in favor of plain Hanes. He and I went on a special trip to Target to pick out the new underwear, and we debated the relative merits of the different styles for at least ten minutes. I remember so well the day that two-year-old Joseph triumphantly wore his superhero underwear for the first time - backwards. He always wore it backwards so he could more easily see the cool picture.

Oh, and Joseph is also inexplicably convinced that 8 year olds don't let their Moms kiss them goodnight. Even a loving peck on the forehead is so uncool lately. I told him he better just accept my motherly affection because it's not going away. For now, he does his best to wriggle out of my grasp when I tuck him into bed!

My church calling has kept me pretty busy lately and I helped last weekend with a Super Saturday all-day crafting activity. I was dumb and I signed up to make a few crafts, which was a problem for several reasons. First, I don't like doing most crafts - I find them tedious. And I do them badly. Also, I was too scattered to focus since I was helping to run the activity. The end result was unfinished and unimpressive looking projects.

This weekend the girls and I will go to Portland for a Time Out for Women and Girls. We are very excited! The boys (Joseph and Dan) will be here doing whatever boys do when the girls are gone. Eating pizza? Not eating fruits and veggies with meals? Watching movies? Shopping for new video games? I don't know. I probably don't want to know.

And that's all for tonight. Just a few thoughts on this really cool date.

Pumpkin Patches

Recently two of Bailey's friends confessed that they have lived in Vancouver their entire lives and have never gone to a pumpkin patch.  What? We live in the mecca of pumpkin patches and Christmas tree farms. And we have the most beautiful fall weather that lends itself perfectly for a day at a pumpkin farm. It's a tradition we look forward to every year.

This year we went in two shifts. I took Aubrey and Joseph and two of the Sjogren kids to Bi-Zi farms on an early-release school day. Bailey went to the same pumpkin farm on a group date.
 
 

And here a few pictures from Bailey's date to the pumpkin patch/corn maze. The teenagers met at our house and then carpooled in a 15 passenger van to the pumpkin patch. Afterward, they came back to our house for dinner and a movie. It was so much fun to have these awesome guys and girls hanging around our house!

This is Bailey and her date.

 

The entire group

 

 

 

Halloween Happenings

We had so much fun with Halloween! The weather has turned colder this last week, but Halloween night was unusually warm, almost 60 degrees. We didn't even wear coats.

Because of our family rule about no trick-or-treating after age 12, Aubrey spent Halloween evening watching a movie with her friend Laura. But, she was able to dress up in costume for school. (Every school in the district forbids Halloween costumes at school, with the exception of the school both Aubrey and Bailey have attended for middle school - I guess that's the advantage to going to the Arts school. They set their own rules and encourage creativity!)  Aubrey dressed up as Rose on Dr Who, as she is currently obsessed with the BBC version of the show.  We borrowed a vintage (from the 50s) poufy slip from a friend and worked hard to get her hair "just right", with height at the crown and pinned curls surrounding the bun in the back.

The costumes that Joseph and his friend Matt made themselves were the HIT of the neighborhood.  They decided a few weeks ago to make their own costumes, modeled after characters on the video game Minecraft. I was just informed by my resident Minecraft expert that Matt was Steve and Joseph was Hero Brine. Matt and Joseph took boxes from our garage and fashioned heads and torsos and then decorated the boxes to their liking. Joseph (on the right) decided to use colored duct tape to wrap around the box). I was worried  about their ability to see clearly, but they did okay.  Can you see their eyes looking through the nose holes?

Joseph felt like quite the celebrity last night. He must have had 100 people compliment him on his costume, some from way across the crowded street. It is fun to see homemade costumes which require creativity. Joseph thought it was funny that all the adults called him a robot or Lego Man because obviously we should be able to recognize a Minecraft character.

Some of our first trick-or treaters were these guys.  Wait . . . I thought Aubrey wasn't supposed to trick-or treat?

We walked around the neighborhood for a few hours, joined by the Kartchners and McCauslands. Afterwards we gathered at our house and the kids traded candy. That is the best part!  I seriously wish I was still 8 years old and could join in. It was such an injustice that the day after Halloween was a school day and a Seminary day. 5 a.m. felt very early this morning.

I didn't get a picture of her, but Bailey was dressed up as a Minion, and she went with other ASB kids to collect money for the Red Cross.

For the record, this year our Halloween respectability went up a notch when we added a fog machine to our decorations at the front door (at Joseph's persistent request).

On Tuesday night we had our traditional wacky Halloween dinner, complete with dimmed lights, spooky music, and a menu which included Ghoul Drool, Shivering Nightmares, Witch's Toenails, Intestinal Contents, and Shriveled Cat Kidneys.  Yum.

And isn't this a creepy picture to go with a creepy dinner?

This picture totally does not do justice to the reality. As Dan would deliver each course to the kids, he would dance a crazy "Thriller" dance. It was a video moment, and I goofed by taking a picture instead!  Also pictured is the aftermath of our food preparation area. Disaster.

 We carved pumpkins Sunday night.

 Joseph took it very seriously and did the entire carving by himself.

 

 And the mess that remained. Why are there so many messes associated with holidays?  =)