Pac Man

It's too bad that I didn't take pictures when Danny started this project on Tuesday. I think he spent about 6 hours on it on Tuesday, 4 hours on Wednesday, 4-6 hours on Friday... and pretty much all day today. He finally had it finished to his satisfaction at about 6pm.

If he had planned it out ahead of time, we maybe could have started saving up large pieces of cardboard. As it is, we pretty much didn't have anything bigger than an orange box...if that big. I think there is possibly more duct tape than cardboard involved here.

It was not a costume to run around the neighborhood in - we sent Alex with him to make sure he didn't run into any little kids. His costume was a big hit - everyone recognized the iconic shape and color. I'm practically teary-eyed when I think about all the hard work he put into this costume.

Practically - but not quite. Just wait until Monday morning when school starts and he has to pay the piper (me) and catch up on his late assignments.

Tardy(ish)

This is how it all starts...first you start staying up late, or getting up during the night to get a drink of water to quell a coughing fit, or both. Add to that a sick husband who has his alarm turned off (so HE can sleep)...and the next you know it's 5:48am and you're supposed to be at church ready to teach in 12 minutes.

Thankfully this all happened on a Friday morning...game day. I had my game all prepared...(think speed dating meets scripture mastery...) thank goodness. As soon as I saw the time, I lept from bed and told Steve to call the church (good morning honey) as he was dialing, I was dressing - thankfully it's not too cold to wear sandals with a longish skirt. I asked Deann (on the phone) to have our substitute principal go to my classroom and have the kids take down the tables and stack them.

I made it to church just 2 minutes late. Pretty awesome. Not only did I make it, but so did Danny. I had a couple of my students put up the scripture "dates" on the wall while we were singing our opening song...and we were pretty much ready to go about as soon as we would have if I hadn't been late.

The bright lining to this? I got an extra hour and 18 minutes of sleep this morning. Wahoo.

Happy 24th Birthday ...Yesterday!

I was planning to post a birthday blog for Nathan yesterday...unfortunately we had some internet issues...so here we are, more of a post birthday wrap-up.

• leftover Funfetti sprinkles and lit candles are the culinary equivalent of putty and paint(which "make things what they ain't).
• this style will be know as "Birwedding Cake" - a combo birthday/wedding style. Lots of layers like a wedding cake (made of my cream cheese pound cake) and frosted like a birthday cake with Nutella and cream cheese frosting.
• Snorlax cake topper. Nathan's choice.
• I think he really liked the presents we got him...I think.
  
  
  

Argh, maybe.

This is my effort at pumpkin carving this year. Not too bad considering what I had to work with.

Here's what I had to work with:

• a slightly undersized, under ripe pumpkin (it was the biggest homegrown one we had left - I wasn't about to waste valuable bunker money on something as ephemeral as a carved pumpkin)
• a bum left wrist.
• a burned right thumb.
• I forgot to put on my glasses, so I had to squint at the pumpkin the whole time I was carving it...come to think of it, I probably did look slightly pirate-ish.
• I carved it while Danny rewrote his History essay...the one he had just about finished (all but the bibliography)...before the computer died.

If I had had a larger pumpkin, I definitely would have tried something with more scope...possibly Star Wars related. I've been know to carve a mean Darth Vadar.

Moving Picture

Stephanie and Cory left Marysville last Monday. Their trip to South Carolina ended today! Here's a little of what I know - I hope that Stephanie will get a chance in the next week or two to fill in more of the story, but I'm pretty sure they'll be busy moving in and getting settled.

• Monday: left our house at 5:50am. Arrived at Mountain Home AFB in time for dinner.
• Tuesday: I know they drove to SLC...visited Temple Square and then spent a little while at Aunt Debbie's house - so they could visit with her and Grandma Erminie (see picture). Spent the night at Hill AFB.
• Wednesday: Drove through Wyoming then down to Colorado where they spent the night at Aunt Suzanne's house.
• Thursday: Some snow and ice on the road in Colorado...but they made it to Wichita, Kansas that night.
• Friday: Wichita to Little Rock. Noticed that all the good roads were toll roads.
• Saturday: Little Rock to Atlanta. Noticed that rest stops are perhaps not as common as would be appreciated.
• Sunday: Atlanta to Charleston.

The final stretch wasn't too long of a stretch - they made it from Atlanta to Charleston by about 1:30pm - just a little too late for church. They had entered their new house address as "home" on their GPS - so they swung by there before heading over to Charleston AFB - where they will be staying for the next 2 nights - until they close on the new house. The Elder's Quorum of their new ward has been alerted to the move in - so that should go really fast. Stephanie and Cory were brutal about getting rid of stuff when they were packing up their old house - so they only have one POD to empty.

Cough Drops for the Soul

It may not have been home-made chicken soup, but when Deann dropped off some cough drops for me yesterday...it may as well have been.

I've been pretty much under the weather for the past week...I started getting a tiny sore throat on Monday...then it got a little worse on Tuesday. By Wednesday it was a full-blown cold. Itchy eyes, streaming nose, fever, hacking cough. Yeah. I haven't been sleeping well for the past few nights due to coughing myself awake every time I would doze off.

When Deann called me yesterday morning - to discuss seminary for Monday - I'm pretty sure I must have sounded totally pathetic. A while later Danny comes into my office with a bag of cough drops. I hadn't even heard Deann come to the door.

Thank you Deann. I slept better last night.

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

I scaled Mt. Laundry and have lived to tell the tale.

Countless loads of washing and drying...a mountain of folding...and I'm down to the last load. Wahoo. I even mopped the floor - I think I'll leave Nathan to scrubbing the shower. I could offer to pay him with my ill gotten gains...

...the 71 cents and one game token earned by "money laundering".