Queen for a day-te

Carly's school scheduled their Sadie Hawkins dance on Saturday the 30th. We were a little bummed it would interrupt our yearly family tradition of being together for Hocus Pocus and trick-or-treating but I also think it's a great idea to give teenagers something to do on Halloween or in our case the day most of the community would celebrate the day.

After Carly acquired a date they put their heads together to find a cool couple costume. They tossed around the idea of "thing 1 and thing 2" from Dr. Seuss but Andrew came up with "Burger King & Dairy Queen"

after a little web surfing. I thought it was cute and then I started wondering how I was going to pull off a Dairy Queen costume. For 2 frightful days I thought I was going to have to sew a whole dress out of cowprint fabric. I started searching on the internet for ideas and came up with not a cowprint dress but a cowprint cloak (much easier) with a plain black or white dress. She had a floor length black dress from choir last year that she can't sell back because they changed dresses this year (GRRRRRR!!!! it was $80 for one year! can you tell I'm still perturbed?) My friend helped me by hemming the dress, bless her!

We went to the fabric store and, after looking all over the store a couple of times, asking employees for direction, finding Mason's dragon fabric and just about giving up.....

we found 1 yard of low-pile fur cowprint in the remnant bin. It was all they had in the whole store. We lucked out. I was grateful not to have to hit another fabric store. My beautiful, gracious, talented friend helped me again by sewing it into a cape and instead of having it clasp or tie in the front we thought it would look better, more regal if you will....

if it was attached to the shoulders. The cloak had little loops sewed to the ends and buttons were sewed to the shoulders. We bought a cheap little tiara at Partyland and a wide pink ribbon at the fabric store and 3D silver glitter paint.

Carly wrote "Dairy Queen" on the sash, we attached a little circle of velcro and voila! it was complete.

Mark and I agreed to cook and host dinner for 4 Sadie Hawkins couples at our house the night of the big dance. I had the girls over after school about a week before to toss around ideas and come up with a menu. We talked about a mummy meatloaf.......

or possibly meatball eyeballs.....

spider cupcakes, frankenstein jello-cups, witch finger breadsticks and the like but the girls finally decided on a few ghoulish sidedishes but just really good food for the main course.

Mark had agreed to cook something in the dutch oven and that won out over spooky food.

The menu they decided on was Dutch oven Chicken Cordon Bleu, Dutch oven potatoes, salad, rolls, dip w/witch finger carrots sticking up out of them with a plate of cucumbers and carrots for dipping and cake-ball eyeballs w/ ice-cream for dessert.

The 4 girls came over Friday the 29th to make the cakeballs with me.

One girl brought a red velvet cake already baked and we set to work making the cake balls and decorating them.

It was fun

and afterwards they all decided to stay and watch Poltergeist with Mark.

Saturday about Noonish the girls set off for their day date. They picked up the boys and headed out to a corn maze. They had brought snacks with them and expected the corn maze to take quite a bit of time.

Which it didn't.

So they decided to go to Cabelas. As Carly put it "all boys like Cabelas- We knew we'd be fine if we went there!"

After dropping off the boys they had about an hour before it was time to get together to go pick them up. They got costumed up and set off about 6ish. The plan was to be back for dinner at 7.

The tourist would be picking up a devil

The cop left to nab a robber

Dairy Queen set out to crown her Burger King

& Pocahontas to save John Smith from an evening of boredom

Mark and I were busy setting the table and cooking the food. I was happy with the way the table had turned out. I thought it looked pretty good.

We picked up the black tablecloth, plates, napkins and glasses at the dollar store so it was pretty inexpensive. Mark and I bought everything for the main course which the girls planned to divide by 4 and pay us back. They also each contributed by helping bring parts of the dinner which made it easier. One girl brought the salad and dressing. Another brought all the punch ingredients. Another brought the baked cake and ingredients for the cakeballs Friday night. Carly was supposed to make rolls...

(but we all know how that turned out right? yup! I was making rolls at 5 o'clock Saturday evening)

We found this bucket at the dollar store too to put our punch in. Carly got out her trusty bottle of silver 3D paint and wrote "Toxic Waste" on the side. We had dry ice in it but by the time I took a picture it wasn't smoking anymore. Mark kept worrying that the dry ice would crack the bucket but all was well.

The punch was one of the girls favorite holiday punch. It was very yummy. We'll make it again I'm sure& we'll call it:

Kallie's Holiday Punch

3 liters cranberry juice

2 liter bottle lemon lime soda

1 large can pineapple juice.

so good.

The girls did get back with their dates around 7ish and we served them and answered the doors for the few trick or treaters that came our way. They seemed to have a great time, talking and laughing and eating. They stayed until 9:30. The dance started at 8 but they didn't want to be nerdy and get their right on time!

demi-gods, dalmations & mimjas

For this Halloween, Rachel chose to be Annabeth from the Percy Jackson book series. She was my 2nd easiest costume this year. She wore a NY Yankees hat that we ended up making ourselves out of a plain blue hat we found at a secondhand store. Rachel practiced making the Yankees logo and used a bottle of silver 3D glitter paint to turn the plain hat into a yankees hat. We found an orange shirt at the dollar store of all places and found a template online that we printed up and then cut out the letters with a box cutter and then drew on with sharpie. She wanted an owl to represent Annabeth's mother Athena so we just found a simple image and printed it and then colored it really dark with pencil, put it upside down on the shirt, rubbed really hard so we had a light pattern and then filled that in with sharpie. Her costume was really easy. I did make trips to 3 secondhand stores looking for the hat over the month of October before settling on the plain one but the shirt was easy and the pattern was easy. I also bought owl earrings and clip on adapters but she wouldn't wear them. grrrrrr.....

Rachel had trick or treating duty. Mark and I were knee-deep in Sadie Hawkins dinner making. That will be the next post. It was the first time I haven't gone trick or treating with my kids which was really weird. I didn't like missing that. We let Jacob go with his friend Nathan. He was thrilled with this go at independence and the 2 boys really worked on quantity this Halloween which I don't usually let them do...

Mason wanted to be a "blue mimja"

(we worked on the word "Ninja" all month and I think he finally got it.....)

We already had the blue karate outfit from when Carly and Rachel were in karate. Jacob used it a few years ago for his own blue ninja costume. That year we found a blue ninja hood a the dollar store. We didnt' have that kind of luck this year so while at the fabric store for Carly's costume we found some Asian looking red fabric with a dragon on it and I bought a quarter yard, sewed it into a tube and it became Mason's ninja headband. He loved it and I got out of trying to sew a hood. Yea!!! Mason got the award for "easiest costume to make" this year.

Samantha wanted to be a Dalmatian. We had a black tail from Rachel's black kitty costume when she was a little tiny kindergartener. We had ears that we cut off of an old Dalmatian costume they have all wore for dressing up for years from Rachel on down. It was beyond repairing or wearing anymore so the ears came off and we sewed the open edge closed and sewed them onto a headband. We couldn't find white sweatpants anywhere but the 2ndhand store saved us again with a pair of karate pants. We bought them along with a white sweatshirt, 2 black permanent markers, a dog collar at the dollar store and started drawing circles every time we sat down to watch a TV show. I think I got it over halfway done conference weekend.

I appreciated the simpleness of these 3 costumes while working on Jacob's! I also appreciated the decisiveness they had this year. 2 of the 3 had their costume decisions to me before September ended so we had lots of time to look and get started so it wasn't a rush around thing.

Carly, however, was another story......

Jacob's Halloween project

Jacob is a "can-do" kind of kid. When he has ideas, they're big. Sometimes I think that's hard on him. There are times that I think I bring him down because I don't see the possibility. There are also times when he makes a believer out of me and I accomplish things I didn't know were possible through his dreaming and scheming and cheerleading.

This year he wanted to be a Greek Hopelight warrior for Halloween. I said " a what??"

He described the uniform. I said, "I need some pictures. I need some idea of how to begin this costume. ... and it can't be a drawing by you" We went to the library and looked for costume books. There was nothing close to what he was looking for. This was early October.

He started researching on the computer and found some how-to videos on youtube and some templates we could print out for the helmet and a pattern for a tunic/kilt a grandma had sewed for her grandson. He's good for me because my tendency is to worry about failure & pull back from things that look hard and decide that I can't do them. He is so positive and so sure of the possibility and he wants it SOOO Much that I want it for him and I become more willing to try even if it might mean failure.

I hesitantly committed to one thing at a time. First I agreed to make the "vambraces" (arm armor) and the helmet. I didn't promise I could figure out the crest on top and if he was okay with that we could proceed. He was okay with that and certain that we would be able to figure out the crest on top. No problem!

We collected newspaper for papier mache and cardboard from cereal boxes and cracker boxes for the construction.

Jacob fashioned the vambraces himself after watching the how-to video and I helped with a little bit of the cutting detail but they were his design and it was his idea to push them onto plastic glasses to help them keep the right form during the papier mache process.

I wish I'd taken more pictures of the process but the helmet was pretty cool. We printed out 4 pieces of a template and traced them on to cereal box cardboard. We cut them out and taped them together and stuck them onto a balloon.

Now it was time for the papier mache. We did 2 layers of Papier Mache on the vambraces and 3 layers of papier mache on the helmet.

Jacob helped every step of the way. He was having a great time.

This is what they looked like when ready to be painted.

When it was time to buy spray paint he also had very very specific ideas. I made some suggestions that I thought were better but he stuck to his guns as to what his vision was.

We found some dusters at the dollar store that worked perfectly. We ripped the handles off and stuck the screw they were connected to the handle with into the top of the helmet, bent it over and taped it down. It was pretty simple and I counted it as a great blessing that it was that simple to get the crest right.

Now that the helmet and vambraces were done it was time to move on to step #2. I was now committed to trying out the breastplate. Believe it or not we started with 2 pieces of posterboard, taped short end to short end and then folded back together. You cut out a neck piece, cut out the shoulders and then start trying it on and taping and cutting it to fit. Once we had a fit we liked we taped it all over with masking tape because otherwise, once you start papier macheing the posterboard will not hold up. AND... if you want to look very manly you can build up the pecs and abs with extra newspaper and cardboard. Finally, we made a form to hold the shape while we papier mached it.

All we did was stuff 2 trash bags inside, one inside the other. We filled the innermost one with newspaper until it had the shape we wanted and then tied it off. We made our paste, cut up newspaper strips and got started. We did 3 layers. We kept fans on it at night to try to speed up the drying process in between layers as time was getting short til Halloween.

Jacob borrowed Rachel's soccer shinguards so we didn't need to make leg armour and I bought some vinyl tablecloth material to make a kilt. I am sure we could have found a better design for the kilt but that's all I had the energy for at this point. The color was a good match for the armor and it worked. The night before the school party/parade we needed to complete the cape. My sewing machine started acting up so I just knotted the ends and made an elastic band to hold it onto the shoulders.
He was disappointed we didn't have time to make a big ol' shield but otherwise was very happy with the results. As was I

Rachel's short story

Thirst

Nineteen year old Jo-Jo Jenkins woke from the monotone beeping of her alarm clock. After a couple of moans and grunts she stretched her stiff arm and hit the clock with such force it fell over onto the floor. She flicked her lamp on and sat up from her bed. She stretched and popped her back, still feeling quite tired from lack of sleep.

“Remind me why I’m doing this.” She mumbled to herself.

Jo-Jo had made the final decision the day before (after hours of mental debating) to wake up at 6:30 a.m. to go on a very difficult hike, which would take about a full day. She’d been with Dr. Morister, a very experienced doctor, to discuss what to do to improve her health. Dr. Morister instructed her to do lots of exercising and to eat healthier. This meant hours of jogging, swimming, endless aerobic videos, and a change in diet consisting of no sugar or fat. This was going to be a big change for Jo-Jo, and she knew it, but she knew she needed to be healthier or else face many health problems that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Jo-Jo had decided to start this “new life” with taking a hike up in the East Mountains, called the “Steep Stone Trail.” She knew the hike would be very difficult for her, but she was determined.

Jo-Jo finally dragged herself out of bed and got ready. She slipped on some comfortable gym shorts and an old t-shirt, and then tied the shoelaces of her hiking boots over some thick wool socks. She grabbed her backpack and headed toward the kitchen. She put in some trail mix, dried fruit, carrot sticks, and many delicious flavors of granola bars in her backpack. It got a little chilly this time of year, early November, so she packed her jacket. She put her ipod, earphones, and cell phone in her pocket. She knew that cell phone coverage was only on the trails, so if she walked off the trail her phone was useless. But of course, she wasn’t planning on going off the trail.

Jo-Jo climbed in her aging and rusting faded blue bug and started the ignition. The old bug screeched and growled for a couple of minutes and then roared to life. The radio boomed on: “Breathe…. Just breathe….” the notes and lyrics sang. She turned it down a notch or two, and began humming along. She put the old blue in gear, backed out of her garage, and began the short drive to East Mountains.

She arrived at Steep Stone Trail about twenty minutes later. She grabbed her backpack and slipped out of her rusty automobile. She turned the key a couple times to lock her bug. She began hiking one stone at a time, up and up the trail.

The sweet scent of pine blew with the whistling wind. Jo-Jo crunched the frost beneath her tennis shoes as the path dramatically changed from flat to uphill. She heard the sweet singing of birds; their notes similar to the song she’d heard in the car. The words of the verses swam through her head, she could never remember the exact lyrics. The quick chatter of chipmunks quickly distracted her from the birds. She put on her earphones and pushed the center button for shuffle, “2a.m. and she calls me ‘cause I’m still awake. Can you help me unravel my greatest mistake?”. She kicked some little stones along the path, and hummed along until the song finally sang the lyrics that she could sing along to, “And life’s like an hourglass, glued to the table. No one can find the rewind button, girl…hmm….. And breathe… just breathe. Oh breathe, just breathe.”

A fork came onto the trail, and she mindlessly strolled to the left dirt path in the forest and continued humming. She was too distracted to notice the sign hidden in the aspen with an arrow pointing to the right stone path. Cell phone coverage did not exist where she was walking.

Jo-Jo chewed on some dried mangos, chomped on some trail mix, and nibbled on granola bars for the next two hours. Her heart pounded, she breathed loud and hard. She sweat profusely and wiped her brow. She scrambled around in her pack for a water bottle, until the truth hit her like a baseball, “Oh, no.” she gasped. Her bottle of water was not in her pack. It never was. It was still in her refrigerator at home, fresh and cold. Her mouth watered with the thought of it untouched. This whole trip was completely ruined because she forgot her water. She placed her hands on her hip in an annoyed form. She scowled and turned around to go back down the mountain to her vehicle.

Hiking for nine hours without water was not good. Her throat burned with agony. Her heart pounded fiercely. Jo-Jo was desperately lost. She had taken so many twists and turns along the trail, she didn’t know where to go now, “I should have grabbed a map!” She exclaimed to herself. The aching in her body was so much to endure. She collapsed on a patch of grass. She inhaled deeply, then exhaled loudly. She didn’t know what to do. She was lost in a forest with no water. If she continued she might turn the wrong way and make herself even more lost.

“My cell phone!” Jo-Jo cheered. She dug her sweaty hand in her pocket and pulled out the phone. She dialed 911. Her small smile soon faded as she realized that her cell phone did not work. She clamped her phone shut.

At 9:24 p.m. Jo-Jo Jenkins, still sitting on that same patch of grass, shivered and shook in the chilly night air. Another tear trailed down her cheek like a waterfall, landing on her raspberry lips, and slipped down onto her chin and descended to the dew grass. She wiped the wet trails off her cheeks and whimpered. Her green eyes darted to some pine trees. Some thing was in the pines. Jo-Jo slowly stood up.

She walked backward, her eyes frozen on the spot. Some bright beady eyes shot at hers. She screeched and ran the opposite direction of the eyes. She leaped across bushes and dodged aspen trees. Jo-Jo’s heart thumped rapidly, pounding her blood through the veins. Her vision blurred as her tears blinded her. Her foot caught under a fallen willow and she landed with a THUD, followed by a discreet, yet painful, CRACK. Jo-Jo wailed with agony. She turned her head and glanced at her foot- that was turned the opposite way it was suppose to be. She sat up on her knees and examined her left foot with discomfort. Her hand nudged the bone- immediately a blood curdling scream escaped her lips. She cried with pain. She began crawling- dragging her broken foot – into a small clearing of maple trees. Her eyes squeezed shut while volcanoes of saltwater poured out.

She plugged in her earphones to distract her from the pain, “Just breathe…” echoed into her ears. As much as she’d heard that song today – it had never made a difference until now. She tearfully sang along, and took in every word and applying them to the situation, “Life’s like an hourglass glued to the table. C’mon Jo-Jo. Breathe. Just breathe.” She chanted to her self.

An hour later Jo-Jo turned to her side and gazed in the trees. She saw a reflection of the bright moon on a big dark oval. Ripples waved through it. Water! There was water! Jo-Jo clung the grass and pulled herself toward her only hope. She bent over the water and gulped in cool, refreshing water. She didn’t care what bad things were in it. All that mattered was that thirst was no longer a hardship. Yes, she had a broken ankle and was terribly lost, but she had water! Her happiness was so full the pain in her foot seemed to have disappeared.

Jo-Jo’s earphones jerked from her ear. From the corner of her eye she saw her small electronic device sinking into the deep lake. She plunged her hand to grasp it, but at the same time her knees slipped and she toppled into the cold depths of the lake.

Jo-Jo’s nose filled rapidly with water as her arms and hands began flailing in the water. She swam with all the strength she had left. Her good foot paddled rapidly. Her broken foot was weighing her down!

Life’s like an hourglass glued to the table.

Jo-Jo swiped the thick moss as she slowly sunk. If only she didn’t go on this stupid hike. Then none of this would have happened. No one can find the rewind button, girl. Jo-Jo’s adrenaline slowly faded.

And breathe…just breathe.

She couldn’t breathe. No matter how much she tried.

Oh, breathe… just breathe.

The final grains of sand tumbled down the funnel of Jo-Jo Jenkins’ hourglass.

Revenge of the Round Brush

There are many ill-advised pairings....

Lisa Marie & Michael

(sorry abs)

Pickles & ice cream

Italian chili & candy corn

Inexperience & the round brush.....

Ouch!

Samantha was blow-drying her hair all by herself and saw a round brush in the drawer. She thought it looked like fun.

She came to the kitchen crying and that brush was stuck tight. I got really nervous after working at it for a few minutes. I couldn't get it to budge and the hair was ripping. I thought I was going to have to get the scissors.

Persistence and patience paid off however and just when I was about to lose hope..

It started to give-

This was all we lost. She was lucky.

She didn't feel lucky..

She did have a little lump on her head and was very bruised where we pulled and pulled

but we didn't have to get the scissors.

The brush is in the trash.

The girl is wiser.

A complement for you... and a complement for you.. and you... and you....

I had a funny little 3rd grader at my table last week at school. He has dark hair, a little round face and a thoughtful, quirky way about him. All week he would write me little notes on his worksheets and surreptitiously slide them over in front of me until I would write or verbalize a comment back...

While it did not feel wholly insincere, it did feel studied....experimental.....

"I like your hair color"

Thank you

"I like the color of your shirt"

Thank you

"You're nice"

Thank you

"Thank you for helping me with my work"

Your welcome

At one point he also tore off pieces of his worksheet and wrote similar complements and quietly sidled off to other tables and dropped them in front of the teachers there while I was focused on helping another student. He would slide silently into his seat just as I would look to see what he was up to. He'd smile serenely at me as I'd look at him sternly and admonish him to get back to his subtraction.

By Friday the other children at my table were beginning to notice. One asked me what he was doing and I responded that he was writing me a note. He looked confused and said to the note-writer "why are you doing that?"

The boy responded in an airy, nonchalant voice "I'm complementing the teachers. I like to give little complements"

I had to suppress a giggle because at that moment I pictured him like this:

only shorter

Timing.... It's everything!

One night last week Mark was working away at his laptop.

He took a break to look at a funny video. The 2 boys crowded around watching with him and I saw a great photo opportunity to get a shot of all my boys.

It's not easy.

Mark is not a poser. He does not smile for longer than 2.4 seconds and if you don't get the shot...

well, that's just too bad for you 'cause you had your chance.

I got the picture and then...

I got another as Mason let loose and Mark realized the little stinker

did just that-

right on his leg....

Peee-uuuu!