Thoughts on Chips and Salsa

It's the perfect meal. Not too sugary. Not too healthy. 50/50. It's what I want to eat every time I'm hungry. I love it.

- Mason, December 26, 2011

Me too Mason! Me too! yummm.

The great duck hunter

Back in November-

While Carly was getting her Senior pictures taken at the BYU arboretum, Mason and I had a little fun taking pictures of our own.

Carly usually doesn't like taking pictures. She doesn't feel very photogenic, she gets a little stiff and then the pictures don't turn out very good. It's kind of like self-fulfilling prophecy I think.

We had a very good experience on this day however and although I haven't seen the pictures yet I heard they looked great and I believe it.

She was comfortable with the photographer, whom she knows well and likes so much, and I saw some of that usual tension slip away and she looked natural and happy.

Mason and I tried to give them room and found some fun of our own with the ducks. He was enthralled with following them around. The ducks, however, did not seem so enthralled.

The ducks seemed ambivalent at first-

then wary,

then downright annoyed

and stand-offish

as the boy in blue just WOULDN'T leave them alone!

Mason, on the other hand,

was having

the time of his life!

date night... interrupted

Did you happen to see the Home security video of some California FedEx guy tossing a package with a computer monitor over a guys fence? I guess it's been all over the news and Mark got a lot of flack today from people he delivered to. "you better not throw my package!" and "I'm watching you. You better be careful with my stuff" etc...

He miraculously got home early today and we decided it was a good night to get away from it all for a little while and go on a date.

5:00 pm Mark and I tell the kids we are going out for a bit and Rachel is in charge. We give the usual instructions. Keep the doors locked. Listen to Rachel. Be nice to each other....

5:01 pm We pull out of the garage

5:02 pm Almost out of the driveway. My cell phone rings. It's Mason. "Mom, can I have a pumpkin cookie?" Sure. ...click...

5:05 pm 400 N heading to State Street. My cell phone rings. It's Samantha. "Mom, can I have a pumpkin cookie? and also..umm.. Mason!!!?? is that you on the phone. Get off the other phone. He's always doing that mom. He knows I called to tell on him. He called me a TURD!!! He's being so rude.

Mason, are you there?

...... uhhh yeah.

It is very rude to get on the phone when someone else is making a phone call do you understand????

Yes.

Don't do it ever again.

Okay.

And stop the name calling. Do you know what a turd is?

(At this point, Mark is laughing uproariously in the driver's seat)

No

A turd is a piece of poop. You just called your sister a piece of poop. Is that a very nice thing to do?

No.

Don't do it again.

okay. ....click....

5:10 pm It's quiet for a minute while I contemplate an entire evening of the phone ringing. I decide to take charge of my date night destiny and place a call of my own.

Is Rachel there? okay. Rachel, put me on speaker phone and get all the kids around.

Okay mom. just a minute...... okay we're here.

All right, listen up! Dad and I are on a date and we'd like to enjoy our evening out together, this means do NOT call me about cookies, do NOT call me about name calling, do NOT call me about anything at all. NONE of you are allowed to call me except Rachel. Rachel, don't call me unless it's serious. OKAY???!!!!!

okay.

okay.

okay.

okay.

5:12 pm - 6:30pm Adult conversation. aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........

FedEx guy vs. the goat

Mark had an interesting experience at work 2 days ago.....

He works a rural route which means he does a lot more driving than you might expect. He delivers in places where they don't like to put house numbers on their houses and often just make up their address (not kidding) when they order a package because nobody really knows what their house number should be because they're spread so far apart and they're out in the middle of nowhere to begin with! They frequently get quite angry at Mark when he suggests they might WANT to put a house number up. To give you a little idea about his route, sometimes he drives a half hour or more between stops.

He stopped at a house the other day and scanned the package on his scanner and walked up to the door. He saw a goat munching leisurely on some tin cans & a red shirt off the clothesline to the side of the house and didn't think much of it.

In fact, he didn't give the goat another thought until he felt it ram him in the backside.

Ouch.

It had been dehorned, thank goodness, but still apparently packed a wallop.

(which didn't surprise me. I've always understood that packing a wallop was in their job description)

He called me yesterday from the road with this observation...

"It sure hurts to drive all day after a goat butts you in the butt!"

I'm grateful that I can only imagine that he's right. I plan to steer clear of goats as much as I can and I have a feeling Mark won't be turning his back on one again soon.

If you ask him to tell the story the goat might end up looking a bit more like

this....

Round one most definitely goes to the goat

But beware ...

FedEx guy may be bruised but he is not broken.

He's stronger and wiser now and will not be taken down so easily again.

I'm in LOVE with the FedEx guy......

I can't help it.....

He's so cute.

I think it's the shorts...... <3

Halloween 2011: updated

It's very unusual for me to post a bunch of pictures and NOT say anything!

I usually have a lot to say.

Sometimes too much, I hear.......

I am here to rectify the situation. I was off to an out of town party and my mom requested pictures so up they went without time to do anything else. I expected to fix it on Sunday when I got home but after unpacking, I was too tired.

Actually busy and too tired is kind of a theme for this Halloween.....

Carly and Rachel didn't even dress up. Rachel did put on her racing shoes and her Halloween Half Marathon shirt that she got for working the race with her cross country team and declared "I'm a marathon runner" when she kept me company Halloween night as I took the 3 youngest out Trick or treating.

Samantha took pity on me and said "yes" when I suggested a beautiful Asian dress we already had in the Halloween box. Rachel wore it in 7th grade so it was a little big on Samantha but she's a lot taller than Rachel was in 5th grade so it worked. She borrowed this gorgeous fan that Rachel got at girl's camp this summer, we twisted her hair up and stuck some chopstick looking hair clips in it and put some make up on her and Voila! her costume was complete with minimal effort on my behalf.

Mark decided he wanted to be Abinidi for the ward party. We already had the tunic part from a christmas party a few years ago where we were encouraged to dress as if we were from Bethlehem.

I cut flames out of felt I had on hand and glued them together

and then sewed them onto the bottom of the tunic.

I wish it had been longer but "it is what it is".

We added some paper chains and sprayed white in his hair and he was happy. There had been talk of making a beard but I didn't get that far.....

This adorable guy wanted to be a "spy/secretservice/FBI guy" It was different every day but they all basically look the same right? so it was all working out for me. We had to buy the jacket at DI but he already had the rest. We bought the sunglasses at DI and he REALLY wanted a "spy watch" so we looked and looked for something cheap that would fit the bill but the dollar store who ALWAYS has cheap watches had none and Savers wanted way too much for their old dead batteried watches. It was as much to buy a new one which I was not going to do b/c it would be lost in a week. We looked in toy departments, etc. It just didn't happen.

He carried an old briefcase of Mark's to school when he dressed up on Halloween day and when we went trick or treating but I forgot to get a picture. He looked cute holding it. I thought later I should have had him wear one ear phone tucked in his ear with the wire going down into his jacket pocket......

Oops. I thought of it too late. If I'd only googled secret service costume.....

This guy, as usual, had some big ideas. Do you remember when I told you about the kids liking this movie and this dance?

He wanted to be "an Indian guy, not a cowboy & indian guy but an Indian guy."

I helped him define it a little.. "East Indian? Like in Bride & Prejudice?"

"yeah, that's what I mean!"

We spent an entire morning of our Fall break from school at Savers just looking ALL OVER the store and, miracle of miracles, found just what we needed. I was sure I was going to have to sew the long vest which I was nervous about but my friend said she'd help me so that helped ease my fears going in but as it turned out that was unnecessary.

We found the burgundy shirt first with gold and black "indian looking" embroidery on the front and hidden buttons down the front and the right kind of collarless collar.

I didn't think we'd really find them but then we found a pair of scrub pants that were exactly the same color. How is that possible?????

Finally we found this truly horrible, but perfect, long stretchy yellow vest that matched the embroidery on the front of the shirt. I had to cut and sew a bit on the collar and front of the vest a little to make it just right but that was easy copared to having to sew the whole thing.

Then we needed a turban.

We found a pattern online and it was surprisingly easy. We cut off the bill of an old baseball cap and bought some material and a fake jewel, plugged in the glue gun and we were in business!

They all looked great and were happy which, of course, is the point. While my efforts were minimal this year they still had fun.

.....til next year

Somebody found the Halloween Box

AND..

the camera.