Spoooooooky Week!

This is one of those weeks where all of my little projects are happening at the same time.

Sometimes I feel a little bored, so I volunteer to help here and there, and usually that's great. But this week, all of my commitments are happening at the same time. Here's what's going on:

Gave a talk in Sacrament meeting on Sunday
And fixed 6 pounds of taco meat for a youth activity
Next Sunday I'm teaching all the Young Women together
Helped at middle school on Monday
Preschool here on Tuesday, and back to the middle school at lunchtime
Plus Hula Tuesday afternoon
And Young Womens Tuesday night
Halloween on Wednesday (and one last costume to finish up - sorry Hannah)
With a Spooky Science activity after school
And piano lessons Wednesday afternoon
And Trunk or treating at the church after a little neighborhood trick or treating
Thursday I help at the elementary school
And Nathan's parents are coming into town Thursday evening


eeeeeeeek!

It's Aloha Friday

I dedicate this edition of Aloha Friday to my new best friend, Oxy Clean.


When we moved to Hawaii almost a year ago I was ready for sun and sand and surf. I was not ready for red dirt. Who knew that red dirt would take over my life?

King of the Red Dirt Hill

My dad would tell you that it's not dirt, it's soil. I don't know the difference, but let me tell you, it is dirty. Red dirt is like a permanent dye on your socks. And your favorite white skirt. And your new white t-shirt.

Once dried in, it is impossible to remove. One little dirty sock thrown in with a load of whites can cause all sorts of trouble.

But that natural dye can be a good thing - you can buy authentic Hawaiian red dirt dyed t-shirts. Though red dirt socks would probably be better for John.


Oooh! Shoes on over those socks! That's a good start, but if it's wet out the red dirt will seep through your shoes and still stain your socks...

I find red mud footprints on the tile. And red mud footprints on the bathroom vanity. And red mud fingerprints on the refridgerator. And red dirt rings around the bathtub...

The soil in Hawaii is high in iron. When the iron rusts it causes a red color. That's how we get Alaea or red dirt!.

I have seen this red salt at the store, and have wonder what it is. It turns out that it is sea salt mixed with a little hawaiian red dirt. It has a high amount of natural minerals and it is supposed to taste great. I'll have to try it...

Also, there is a legend that when King Kamahama was out with his soldier and they ran out of Poi and got really desperate, they would swim to the bottom of a river and eat handfulls of the red mud to survive. Yum!

Hope your Aloha Friday is a clean one!

If

If you had planned a little getaway to a neighbor island with your honey,

but it turns out your sweetie was,

then wasn't,

then was again,

and then probably for reals wasn't actually going to be able to "get away",

what would you do?




Cancel? Cry? Go Shopping? Eat Chocolate?




Keep your reservation, go to the Big Island, hike the active volcano, and swim with the manta rays....alone?




Reschedule for a one-day in your own hometown kind of get away? (Waikiki Beach is just a few minutes away, that wouldn't be so bad, would it?)

TetherBall

++++++++++++++++++

I have a new calling. (Mormon-talk for volunteer church job that you really didn't volunteer for, but you're (mostly) happy to do.) Last night was my first night on the job at Young Womens.

The Beehives (my assigned group) were in charge of teaching some sweet sports skills. We did soccer drills, volleyball bumping, jump roping, and yoga. We did not get to play tether ball, but John and I play sometimes at school.

I am embarrassed to admit that I'm a little sore this morning. I think from the sideways shuffling up to a line and back and up to the next line and back again.

A couple of the girls in our ward are on their middle school jump roping team. They have the cutest routine evah! I am so jealous. I must learn it.

They also know how to do double dutch, and gave each of us a chance to try jumping in. I'm proud to announce that I was able to jump in on my first try! Go double dutch! Now that I think about it, swinging those ropes may be why my arms are a little sore. (don't tell the young women, they already think I'm oooooooold)

I think we need to start a neighborhood jump roping club...Where do you buy those long jump ropes?

Home Alone.

It's 8:30am on Tuesday. The girls are in school. John is at preschool. and I'm home alone!

I am doing a little neighborhood swap preschool with 3 other mom's, so I have the boys here every other Tuesday. On Thursday while he's at preschool I help at the elementary school. For some reason all of my "off" Tuesdays have been spent at the school or visiting teaching, and this is my first all-alone-with-nothing-to-do day this year!

Not that I really have nothing to do. I am going to sew until 11am, then go get my run. along with a little laundry and mopping.

I am also going to enjoy a nice breakfast out on the lanai.

What do you do when you are home alone?

Ta-Da!

From now on, Saturday blogging will be revolutionized. Mwahahahaha. Does this sound like Wendy right now? HAH! I think NOT! This is her fabulous daughter, the eldest one, Hannah. I am going to be the Saturday "Guest Blogger". From now on, every Saturday, you will get to examine the brain of the modern thirteen-year-old girl. For today, I'll start with thirteen things about me, myself, and I.

1. I love the show The Hills.

2. Beauty and the Beast makes me cry.

3. I love, love love love love love, Pride and Prejudice. All of the movies, and the book, too.

4. Bride and Prejudice, however, might be even better. I wish I could do that snake dance.

5. I get straight As, without fail. So my parents never have to fear in that area.

6. I love sarcasm. Not many adult readers may agree, but I look at sarcasm as a new mother looks at her child.

7. A Room With A View makes no sense. At all. And the whole skinny dipping thing, it really just makes me afraid.

8. I love my family. All of my aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, whatever. They are the greatest.

9. I joined Theater club a few weeks ago, and I don't think I'm ever going to go back. Again.

10. I am destined for great things. Fame, to be exact. I don't know how yet, because the whole theater club thing scared me. No offense to theater enthusiasts, but those kids were really weird.

11. Jacob is better than Edward.

12. I wish the Harry Potter series would just keep going on forever.

13. I love shopping. Especially at American Eagle, Hollister, Pac Sun, Wet Seal, and Old Navy.


---------

This whole guest blogger thing is a test to see how dedicated I really am. Eventually, I might be allowed to have my own blog.

Hostage

I'll never forget the day I found this note sitting on the desk.

Oh the wailing.

and the gnashing of teeth.

The terror.

The loneliness.

The laundry and the dishes and the sewing and the reading (how much more I am able to do in a day when the computer is abducted...)

But, the terms were met. (or the term papers were finished, which ever)

And the computer is mine again!

Hurrah!


----

ps - it appears that the same outlaw who hijacked the computer has now taken control of the TV....

More Air Show + John

I can't help myself - Nathan took too many great photos!

This one always scares me. I have to close my eyes...

And this is my most favorite!

I could keep posting Blue Angels photos all day! But I need to do laundry, and I really wanted to write about John:



John makes me smile. He also makes me do hopscotch. If you haven't done hopscotch in a while, you should. It's fun!

Each morning when we drop off the girls at school he says: I'm thirsty! and I say: You know where the drinking fountain is!

But that drinking fountain is tricky!

Try again!

There you go!

Air Show

We drove over to Kaneohe Marine Corps Base on the other side of the island to see the Blue Angels fly.



Luckily, I brought my photographer with me. He was able to catch some amazing photos! (thanks nate) As we came through the the check in, the Marine looked though his big bag of lenses and asked if he was with the media...



With the mountains in the background, the bay in front of us, the clouds above us and the Blue Angles flying it was a breathtaking show!



A friend gave us grandstand tickets, so we had a great view and seats! (can you tell that is two planes?)



The kids had fun - it was John's first time to see them and Emily hadn't seen them since she was a baby.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

I've Been Boo'd

October is a dangerous month, with temptation lurking around every corner.

Temptation of the miniature candy bar variety.

Last night as I was reading about airplanes to John and Emily, the doorbell rang. Sydney answered the door and yelled:

"Somebody Ding-Dong-Ditched us!"

and she was right. There was just a bag of candy and a ghost picture sitting on the porch. How fun!

I let each of the kids have one candy before bed. I ate a miniature Baby Ruth.

After the house got quiet and my movie started I could hear that candy calling out to me. I tried to ignore it, but before the movie was over I had eaten 2 miniature Kit-Kat bars and a Crunch bar. AND as I went around turning out the lights I ate one last Kit-Kat bar.

That makes 5 all together.

Booooooo!

And they weren't even my favorite kind.

There are 20 more days until Halloween and to avoid turning into a pumpkin myself, I've decided to give myself a little chocolate challenge. No more Halloween Candy until Halloween. On Halloween I will only be allowed 10 candies. I think 10 is a good number. More than a handful, but not an entire plastic trick-or-treat pumpkin full.

I'll let you know how it goes.



Boo-Yeah!


****5:45am is too early to blog. sorry - no time to edit. I was thinking it would be fun to make that ghost into a little side bar sticker for you, in case you wanted to join me, but if I don't get off the computer right now I won't have time to run. I'll try later.

Boo-Hoo to you.

I'm not really blogging right now

It's bedtime.

The kids are awake, but in their beds. Things are getting quiet around here.

And I'm not blogging.

I am going to lay on the couch and watch a movie.

Instead of night-blogging I'm going to get up a little early and blog before my morning run.

I already know what i'm going to write about....stay tuned....

Toilet Tag and other PottyTalk

Some people have gratitude Tuesday. I'm going to go with Toilet Tuesday.


Toilet Talk #1

The downstairs half-bath has the worst stinkin' toilet ever. I am currently engaged in daily battle with the stinky toilet and I'm not winning.

I think I can identify the 3 1/2 foot toilet troublemaker in a line up. We have 3 girls, and a boy. The boy is the youngest. He's been potty trained for a couple of years and he is very reliable at staying dry. He is even staying dry at night (see below for complete story.) But I have a feeling his aim is a little off.

If you are a veteran mother of boys, please help!




Toilet Talk #2

We have a family history of bedwetting. I won't discuss which ones of us had bedwetting troubles because I don't want to embarrass myself anyone, but basically it has been rare for any of our kids to be dry at night before 1st grade. Pullups are my first line of defense.

A few weeks ago we ran out of pullups. I did not want to have to go to the Shoppette in my jammies, so I decided to try night training. I have used this method successfully before, but I had been too lazy to try it with our current bedwetters.

Here's how it works: Put plastic sheets over your mattresses. Please. Then you can make the bed as usual. Make sure your bedwetter uses the bathroom one more time after a bedtime story (around 8pm). Then wake up your bedwetter just before you go to bed (around 11pm) and make sure she goes potty. I find it best to make that bedwetter walk to the bathroom. Sometimes running the water in the sink is necessary to inspire a performance. If you or your spouse get up really early in the morning, it's a good idea to once again take your bedwetter to the bathroom.

I can guarantee a 33% success rate with this method. The other 66% may inspire me to resume buying Pullups for a few more months....




Toilet Talk #3

On the way to Young Women's tonight Hannah told me that she had planned tonight's fun combined activity. I asked her what they were doing and she said they were playing some getting to know you games. Like Flush-Away-the-Bad-Attitude-and-Just-Be-Friends Tag. Otherwise known as Toilet Tag.

I'm so proud of my daughter for coming up with such a noble and inspiring activity. Brilliant!

If you've never played toilet tag, you're in for a real treat! Toilet tag is played like freeze tag. One person is "it" (you can have more "it's" if you have a large group.) "It" has to freeze everyone. The last person tagged becomes "it". If you are tagged you must instantly freeze, and put your right hand out to the side, like a little toilet flusher. To become un-frozen, someone has to come along and "flush" your hand. Flushing sound-effects optional.

Hannah said everyone had fun and there were no accidents!

Time for Blogging

In an effort to preserve our marriage (just kidding, kind of....) I have to find a time to blog that will work for me AND my husband.

Here's the deal. He's been gone a lot this year, which has been a bummer, but when he's gone, I'm able to blog my little heart out. When it's just me and the kids, I put them to bed and then spend the evening all alone with the computer. It is a peaceful time for me. Some days, my favorite part of the day.

BUT when Nathan is home, he is gone all day, and needs to use the computer at night. Which puts a cramp in my blogging.

My best solution to this problem is to get a laptop, but last night I looked over and saw Nathan using our home computer AND his work laptop, both. At the same time. So I'm not sure if even having a laptop would help....

Nathan is gone again this week and I have 5 days of uninterrupted bloggingI think it is my chance to find a better time to blog that won't cause evening tension, you know?

One litle thing I need to consider is that I feel bad when I blog after the kids are in school. I don't mean to, but when I get on the computer I tune out John (our 4 year old) and get grouchy when he asks for my attention (ie -hey, I'm working here, get yer own glass of water...can't you just pull a chair over and climb up the pantry shelves to reach the goldfish crackers yourself, I'm busy...) That sounds terrible. But it's more true than not....

So, I'm wondering, what time of day do you blog?

Do you get up early and write before the day dawn breaks?

Do you blog after your morning run?

Do you blog after the kids are in school?

Do you blog during afternoon quiet time?

Do you blog between soccer games?

When does it work for you?

Conference

I love Conference!

I love staying home and listening to the Prophet speak.

I love waking up early in Hawaii and hearing Conference at 6am!

I love that Conference is over by noon, so we have time to go to the beach on Saturday (and maybe on Sunday but just to see the sunset - no surfing.)

I love that in the prayers, these great men are remembering those serving in the military and their families. It makes me cry. I love that.

I wish I could be in the Conference Center in person, but wearing jammies all day is the next best thing!

Happy Conference Weekend!

Wiki Wiki Friday Feast

Appetizer
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you look forward to your birthday?
9 - I love a party - and a party for ME is the BEST!


Soup
What is one word you don’t like the sound, spelling, or meaning of?
of - it throws me off when I'm writing - for some reason I just can't remember how it's spelled, and it just doesn't look right even when it is right. ov. that's better.


Salad
Do you wear sunglasses when you’re outside? If so, what does your current pair look like?
No, I should wear sunglasses, as the crease between my eyes is getting deeper every day, but I lose glasses and break glasses and I feel like I can't see as well with glasses. That's why I wear contacts.... I wonder if there is such a thing as contact sunglasses...


Main Course
If you were to write a book, to whom would you dedicate it?
My sisters. and/or my housekeeper, because if I was writing a book I'd definately need one of those cool ladies.


Dessert
Name a beverage that you enjoy.
Confession - Diet Coke. With caffine. I grew up with Coke and Pepsi being illegal substances in our Mormon home. Okay, not quite illegal, but... And I've never really been tempted (except when I'm pregnant and coke really helps calm my delicate tummy) until recently. The thing is, soda has way too many calories, but sometimes I really want some of that bubbly stuff. You can never find diet 7-up in the refridgerator at the Commisary checkout stand, but diet coke is always available. Mmmm! Diet coke at bean burrito no onions from taco bell is just about the perfect lunch.

Recently Sydney caught me drinking and driving. (Drinking diet coke, that is) and asked me if I was pregnant. I asked her if I looked fat. She said "No, but you only drink that stuff when you're pregnant, so are you?" And I said NO! No! NO! I'm not pregnant. Sheesh! I just like a little diet coke once in a while, that's all! and I mean it. And, No, you can't have a taste, it's not good for you.

***************

As I was posting up these photos of my hair-dude (as emily says), I was hoping that I would have somehow transformed into a stylish exotic kinda person. There's something about spending a couple hours with someone playing with my hair that makes me feel beautiful beyond reason.

Miss Yen did such a lovely job smoothing out my not quite curly hair! When I saw the photos I was a touch disappointed that I still look just like me. Oh well.

I do like the brown that she wove in with the highlights.




Ooooo! Nice eyebrows!

I told her I like my eyebrows full, just a little cleaned up. If you haven't had your eyebrows waxed before, it's kind of fun. A little warm stuff on your brow, then a smoothed piece of cloth, then YOUCH! It hurts, but it is much quicker than tweezers. Tweezing makes me cry.

So, go back and look at that photo of my eyebrows. If you enlarge it you can get a good look at the mole on the end of my left eyebrow. (and the peach fuzz on my cheeks. And the - gasp - wrinkes around my eye. I really should be wearing sunglasses. On second thought do not enlarge that photo. Please.) I've had that mole forever. It used to be flat, but it is now rather plump. Nathan thinks I should get it removed as it is starting to look a little witchy (eh, eh, eh, my pretty) but would a scar look better?

scar face?

or wicked witch?

Hair

Nathan's home and he's back to work! Waaa!

But I knew he would, so I made myself a hair appointment for 11am today.

The other day we saw an old friend from Rapid City (actually we knew him in Texas and Florida, too) anyway, we saw a guy Nathan works with who is moving here and he said, your hair has really lightened up. and I laughed.

Yoohooo - Highlights!

But is has been 8 months since I had my hair touched up, so maybe the sun is doing a little of the work for me.

Here's what I want - my hair, only better. Nothing scary. No chunks of color. Just regular brown hair with some natural looking highlights. Not too much to ask.

I also want my eyebrows waxed.

That's all.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Dive Buddy

I'm going to go to the airport to pick up my dive buddy in about an hour and I'm all a-flutter!

In A Room with a View, George's Dad, Mr. Emerson (fully clothed, thank heavens) said:

There's only one thing impossible:

that is to love and to part.

Awwww. Isn't that sweet? Yea! for love! Welcome Back Nathan!!

Aaaaaaaaaa~

Oh, no! Blech. Yeeps. Gahhh.

My eyes!

This week's Netflix selection is A Room with a View. A movie I have loved since I was in High School. A turn of the century English romance, based on the book by E.M. Forster. I have seen it many times. Love it.





Have you seen it?

So, tonight I'm watching it again. And Oh. My. Gosh.

What is this, the X-Rated version. The ADULT movie?

You know the pond scene, where they accidentally come across the boys bathing? In my memory there is just a brief rear-end shot and a lot of splashing. Not in this version. There was some serious full nudity. Lots. Ew! It is burned in my brain....

Waaaaaa.....

Monday To Do

I love to do lists! I like the way they move the things running around my head into a neat little pile on paper. I like how I can see that I've made progress by just drawing a line through what's been done. I like the way I feel motivated to actually DO the items on my list when I post them up for all the world (or atleast all my 6 readers) to see.

Nathan thinks my lists are a little silly. He always like to add Make a List to the top of my list, and then he marks it off. silly boy. He's been gone all month and gets home tomorrow, so this is the super-clean-up-the-house-so-I-can-pretend-I'm-a-good-wife kind of clean up. Luckily the kids are all home for fall break, so I've got my own clean up crew!


Make a list (for Nathan, since he's not here to write it in)
Run Run Run (I already did that, but I want to be able to cross off something!)
Shower (please, you really stink!)
Wash Sheets
Make Beds
Pay Bills
Clean Cooler
Do a cartwheel
Clean Bathrooms
Vacuum
Sweep (thank you Hannah)
Mop
Sing along to Paul Simon
Kitchen Clean up
Empty Garbages
Deliver donation bags to Goodwill
Dust
Watch A Room With a View
Go on a bike ride with John
Take a nap
Buy lettuce and don't forget to take it to Ivy's house to dinner
Bake cinnamon rolls

Here are the rules. I am not allowed to get on the computer again until I can cross 3 items off my list. No reading blogs. No commenting. No checking email. Nada, unless I get something done...

See you in a minute!