I Love Halloween, But....

It's the day before Halloween and I can't put it off any longer... it's time to confess... I HATE carving pumpkins! I love Halloween, but I hate the mess of carving pumpkins. I'm not a clean freak or anything like that... I just can't explain why I HATE carving pumpkins, but I do! Every year I look for ways to get out of it... some years I let the kids paint their pumpkins with poster paint. I always try to set up carving night when Eric's available to help out, but for some unknown reason, he never seems to be available on that night. (He must secretly hate carving pumpkins too...) So, Ian just got home and reminded me that it's the day I've promised we'd carve pumpkins... in reality, I've probably promised them several nights over the last 2 weeks, but keep managing to stall it off. Last night I finally bought the pumpkins, but by the time we got home it was too late to carve. The pumpkins are still hiding in my car (I'm secretly hoping that they'll forget about them... but no, Ian remembered! Since Halloween is tomorrow, I guess I can't put it off any longer, but I sure wish I could get out of it! Am I alone in the universe with this, or do other people out there dread pumpkin carving, too? I just like having decorative pumpkins that don't ever get cut up sitting out. Maybe I should start a "Save the Pumpkin" campaign!!!

Found a New Way to Waste Time Online!

Through my blog surfing, I stumbled across this webpage where you can download a picture of yourself (or anyone else you want) and it will give you a sampling of your celebrity look alikes... couldn't resist playing with this one... check it out....




Okay, I would have been totally disappointed if Linda Hamilton didn't pop up... when I was in 7th grade the movie Terminator came out and everyone said I looked like the main character, Sarah Connor. For weeks, kids, well one kid in particular... Mike Kincaid... called me Sarah. It was quite annoying since I hadn't even seen the movie!

So, here's Eric:

I had to look up Cesar Franck online (wwww.imdb.com) to figure out who he was... a French Composer born in 1822... yikes!!! I think the Kareem picture is a closer likeness, you just have to imagine Eric with a dark tan and facial hair!

I'm going to have to do some more playing around with this one when I have more time... please don't blame me when you get so caught up in playing around on this webpage that you ignore all your responsibilities! It could happen!

http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/tryFaceRecognition.php

Before I get too carried away I'm going to head for the shower and go do some service - delivering Meals on Wheels. Have a great day!

CSMP....

...it stands for Children's Sacrament Meeting Program. For the last seven years, it has been a Sunday that I dreaded and stressed over. While serving in Primary, this is the "big one"... the day when all the children (3-12) sing and speak about all they've learned in Primary during the year. It's the Sunday that people invite friends and family and the grandparents show up just to see the kids sing. This is the first time in seven years, that I haven't been involved one bit in the planning of this event. When Brother Chubbs got up and said how this is his most favorite Sunday of the whole year, I inwardly thought... not mine! Then, I got to sit through 30-40 minutes of the kids (including Megan and Ian) bearing testimony and singing about the gospel. It was awesome! It's now going to be my favorite Sunday of the year from now on! Today's program was wonderful and I appreciated it so much more since I've personally been involved in planning them for so long. It was great to be able to come and feel the spirit and enjoy the program and not worry about all the little details that I'm so used to dealing with on a day like this! I cried through the whole closing song... it was so moving to hear the kids sing, "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" - when it was time for the congregation to join in, I was so choked up, I couldn't sing! Well done everyone!

Trunk or Treat?

I think the "Trunk or Treat" phenomenon is sweeping the country... well at least it is in Arizona. I thought it was purely a "mormon" invention that stemmed from those frightening stories when I was a kid about crazies putting razor blades in apples and passing them out to kids on Halloween. I remember for a few years after that, my mom would drive us all over town to trick or treat at trusted friends' houses (usually members of our church). It was an unusual way to trick or treat, but at least she knew all the loot was safe to eat. Now, it seems that everyone one does "trunk or treating". Ian wanted to invite a friend from school to our ward trunk or treat and when I called to explain it to the mom, I said, "after we eat chili and play carnival games, the kids will do some trick or treating from everyone's cars out in the parking lot...." She immediately said, "oh yeah, a trunk or treat, right?" Our ward in Dublin always did "trunk or treat" on Halloween night, early in the evening, so there was still time to go home and hit a bit of the neighborhood too. It wasn't a fancy affair, just 30-40 families meeting in the church parking lot and swapping loads of candy. Here, it's a full scale party, so fortunately, they plan it on another night, so the kids still have a full night to trick or treat at home on Halloween. Of course, the kids love being able to dress up and trick or treat 2 nights instead of one! I was the official photographer of the event, so I went around and took pictures of anyone and everyone that I could, but somehow I missed getting pictures with Taylor and Ian in them! Good thing I have another shot on Wednesday to do it right! Brayden wouldn't wear his "official" costume tonight, so we put him in his favorite thing to wear around the house: a Batman mask with the Captain America cape. Hopefully on Halloween, we'll get him in the real costume! Eric and I went the easy route... we dug out our Hawaiian threads to parade around in!

Changing Seasons

People say there aren't seasons in Phoenix... well, let me tell you, there are! We are now officially in fall... how do I know that? Because it cools down at night so you can sleep with the windows open... even when it's in the 90's during the day, which it has been the last few days! My kids have actually been getting up in the morning complaining about being cold! Crazy, huh?? Anyway, the change in seasons got me thinking about a few things.....

I reconnected with a friend from my hometown (Vacaville, CA) last summer at a reunion in Texas. She lives in Mesa now (has been here for much longer than me) and loves the weather. She told me something that forever changed the way I've looked at the summers here. Pretend that summer is like winter. In the winter (in the North) it's too cold to go outside unless you have some big adventure planned (like sledding, skiing, etc.) Here it's too hot to go outside in the summer unless you have some big adventure planned, (wakeboarding, swimming, etc.) It makes total sense! We hibernate in the summer when everyone else hibernates in the winter... hmmm... kinda like living in Australia, maybe?? I wish!

So, it only made sense today that I had the urge to "spring clean"... but it's fall, right? Ah, but it feels like spring to us, when everyone else would normally come out of their "hibernating" season... so I did clean for hours today and it felt good. Amazingly, I really had energy to do it and believe me there is still lots to be done. The more I cleaned the more dirt I noticed... I didn't even put a dent in what needed to be done, but it felt good to work hard today and really make some headway in the constant disaster we live in!

While I cleaned today, I listened to an audio book that I've been saving for a long time... it's kinda heavy reading... not the type of book you want to take on vacation or read by the pool. It's called "A Thousand Splendid Suns". It's written by an Afgan man about life in Afganistan over the last 30 years. I'm only halfway through, but so far am really enjoying it. It truly makes me appreciate the amazing freedoms we have here today in America. It's been fascinating to read about Afgan culture and life before, during and after the Taliban. I truly admire those people and what they have had to go through over the years. I, for one, take too much for granted my easy life here in the States.

This afternoon, I got a phone call out of the blue from a cousin, who is as close to me as a sister (since I've never had a real one....) and she totally lifted my spirits this afternoon with her call. We grew up together and spent more time together than I think most cousins get to... especially those 3 week long cross country road trips! She now lives in Ohio and I live here in Arizona, so we don't get to see too much of each other, but Heidi, seriously, you are a genius!!! I definately need a "time out"! (Inside joke....)

A Few Favorites

Last night at Book Club a friend and I were talking about our favorite desserts... so I decided to post a list of some of my favorite things, just for fun...

My favorite dessert: Warm Brownies with Vanilla Ice Cream - I love Dreyer's Ice Cream and there is no question that the safeway brand generic brownie mix is the best in the business... trust me, I've tried them all!

My Favorite Hobby: this is a tie between scrapbooking and cozying up on the couch with a good book. Due to lack of time, I've also become an audiobook junkie - I check them out at the library, download them onto my mp3 player, listen to them whenever I can - at the gym, cleaning house, car trips, etc. and then erase them from my mp3/computer. Here are some recent books I've enjoyed:

My favorite shopping place: Arizona Mills (Factory Store Mall)... this one mall includessome of my favorite places to shop: Eddie Bauer Outlet, Gap Outlet, Old Navy, Linens N Things, Borders Outlet, Dress Barn Outlet, Nike Outlet, Children's Place Outlet, and a pet store! I love to go look at all the cute puppies, and thus remember why I don't want to do another puppy anytime soon! When is someone going to get smart and put a scrapbooking outlet there???? Wishful thinking, I know.... :)

Favorite Drink: this is a tough one... my #1 favorite is from Sonic - Diet Coke with Vanilla (I try to replicate it at home, and it's good, but not as good as their's...) I also love a couple of Starbucks drinks... in the summer, the Vanilla Bean is great... in the winter it's the Caramel Apple Cider, hands down, no question. (For those of you who are worried, both items are completely Word of Wisdom safe!)

Sniffles, Coughs and Sneezes... oh my!

I haven't spent much time on the computer the last couple days

because we are all fighting a headcold around here. Almost everyone has a little bit of it, but no one is really bad. Unfortunately, I've gotten more sinus headaches... which I get often, and I HATE! The thing I hate about headcolds is that they

can last 3 days or 3 weeks and you never know what it's going to be until you finally get rid of it. The first winter we lived here we had constant headcolds and it was miserable. The secon

d winter we lived here, we had constant stomach flu. To be honest, I'm not sure which one is worse. The flu is bad to be sure, but it's usually over pretty quick. Colds drag on and on and on... especially when we have 2 asthmatics in the house! We just got our flu shots on Saturday, so maybe everyone is feeling a bit low as a result. Who knows... I just want my head to clear up! I had a 3 week long headcold in September, and I'm not ready to repeat the experience quite so soon. While I'm on my "pity party soap box" can I just say how annoying it is to have to show ID at the pharmacy counter to buy REAL sudafed? The new Sudafed PE is total junk, it doesn't work at all! The worst thing is when you go to the store, just to buy Sudafed, and the pharmacy is closed for lunch... come on... can't these people stagger their lunch breaks??? Okay... rant over.... :)

Milestones

Congratulations Dad (Wanlass)!!!! Friday was his last day of work before he ventures into the world of RETIREMENT!!! We are all very happy for him and proud of his accomplishment. I think he's a little bit worried about the transition to retirement, but I'm sure that it will suit him just fine! When he gets bored, he can just go to mom and she'll give him a "honey do" list to keep him busy! As a birthday gift last month, we bought him "1000 Places to See Before You Die", so we are hoping they will budget in some time to travel and enjoy some quality time together!

Mom and Dad Wanlass celebrating their 40th Wedding Anniversary this June at Fentons!

We are also excited to have the Rossiter Grandparents fly home from Europe tomorrow. They've been gone 5 weeks, but it feels like 5 months! I've learned to appreciate the conviencence of having them live so close, even when it's a 12 hour drive, it's never more than one time zone away. While they were in Europe, we could only call them between noon and 1 p.m. (their bedtime) or when they were just getting up in the morning, which was 10 p.m. for us. Even though they have traveled extensively through Mexico, and most recently to Peru, this was their first international trip east - to Europe. They've had a wonderful time and I've spent 5 weeks being jealous that my mom beat me to Paris, when I can at least speak a little bit of the language, and she can't! Oh well... C'est la vie!

Mom and Dad Rossiter 2 weeks before their departure at Adam and Delia's Wedding... will they look any different when they return???

First Night in the new bed...

Who knows if it will be permanent, but Brayden wanted to sleep in his big bed last night. He went to sleep and slept all night, so maybe this is won't be as difficult as I'd feared! He's taking a nap right now, so we'll see how long he sleeps and if he lasts as long as he usually does!

Check out my Slide Show!

For All the Moms Out There... this one is for you...

Transformers: the Movie

Last night we watched the Transformers movie that just got released on DVD. When it was in the theater, Taylor went with Grandma Rossiter to see it and loved it, but we still weren't sure if it was going to be good. Then some other adults told us how good it was, so we decided to head to the theater to see it ourselves, but it was sold out! So, yesterday, I picked up the DVD and we watched it last night. Suprisingly it was a good movie. I liked Shia LaBouef in Holes and he didn't dissapoint in this one, either (is this poor guy destined to have the goofiest names in life??? on screen and in real life!!!). Having that said, it was so funny that I knew all these names from the 80's cartoon and Taylor (now almost 13) couldn't believe that I was well versed in "Transformers" jargon. It was such a kick to see how they took a cheesy cartoon and made it into a credible, entertaining action flick! I think my brother even had some of the toys from that cartoon way back when... I know we had Optimus Prime and I'm sure a few others!

Weekend Warriors

Saturday:

Saturday was such a productive day - I say that proudly, because we don't have lots of productive Saturdays around here, unless there's a BIG "project" in the works. It was our turn for the boat, so we made a run to Saguaro Lake and had a great time. The lake for us is always a new adventure, since we've had so many "issues" when we take the boat out. We've had a flat tire on the highway, with a spare that didn't fit 30 miles from civilization, we've gotten stuck out on the lake when a freak wind storm blew through (in April... not Monsoon), we've gotten parking tickets even though we had the proper parking pass taped in our window, and we've had the tubing rope snap off while we were towing it. Anyway, Saturday was a great day! We all had fun, the lake wasn't too crowded, and there weren't any technical problems! The highlight of the day was for Ian - he usually rides the knee board and just lays on it (body boarding style), but yesterday, he finally got up on his knees... man was he excited!

Once we'd all had our fill of the lake, we headed back home. At this point it was 4:00 p.m. and I'd begged Eric to get the Halloween decorations out for me before the end of the day (they are up in the rafters, so I can't get the box down by myself when it's full). So, next thing we know, we are cleaning out the garage and getting decoration boxes down. Then Eric decides to get all the kids bikes back up and running for the fall. The heat in the summer drained every last tire and a few had leaks that we'd bought replacement tubes for a long time ago. So, an hour later, all the kids had working bikes. They zoomed around the court while we finished up the garage and I'm so thrilled at how clean my garage is now! It was a mess and when the garage is hotter than the air outside, it just doesn't pay to spend time putting things away. So, all was well, when Brayden decided to climb through my neighbor's yard barefoot. My neighbor has a cactus fetish and probably has every cactus variety known to man in his yard. Well, Brayden stepped on a branch of a shrubby type cactus (beats me if I know the name of it...) and started to wail! I scooped him up and ran inside with blood dripping off the bottom of his foot. We got him on the bathroom counter and he wailed while I pulled out dozens of stickers from his foot. Luckily they were long, so easy to grab with my fingers, but they were stubborn and I know he was in a lot of pain during the whole ordeal! After, that, he seemed fine, but we kept a close eye on him for a couple hours to make sure he wasn't going to have some kind of allergic reaction or something!

Sunday:

We had a good morning on Sunday before church - again, it's always an adventure on Fast Sunday because you never know how many tantrums you are going to hear about fasting (and no, we do not encourage our kids to fast until they are 8, so these are big kid tantrums!) Anyway, Megan and I hibernated upstairs, while Eric made a batch of chili in the crockpot and got breakfast for the younger boys. Ian always likes to pick something to eat that everyone loves on Fast Sunday. I can't wait until it's his turn to fast, so that he can't rub his "food privileges" in any one's face anymore! I spent a good chunk of my morning preparing my Relief Society lesson. I used a talk from Sister Bonnie Parkin given as a BYU devotional in Feb 2007. It was printed in the summer edition of the BYU Alumni Magazine, but you can also find it at speeches.byu.edu. The name of the article is "Personal Ministry", if you haven't read it, I suggest you do so. It's fabulous! But, the highlight of the day was hearing all 3 kids bear their testimony in Sacrament Meeting. Truth be told, I offered a reward of a "giant" candy bar to anyone who would do it, but they all took me up on the challenge! This is Ian's testimony that we wrote on a piece of scratch paper two weeks ago... we didn't help him at all. It was a great day!

Doing the Bed Shuffle

This week we finally got Taylor a new bed - he's been begging for a full size mattress for ever, and really he has needed it! He's grown so much in the last year that he looks like a giant trying to sleep in a twin bed! Thank goodness it's still warm at night because I've had trouble finding him a comforter that matches the room, so I'm making one myself! I'm hoping it will look cool - the center will be the tan color with a dark blue border all around. I'm hoping I can quilt stitch a giant "Y" in the center of the tan block... I'm not sure how I'm going to make that happen yet, but I'm working on it!

With all this moving around, we put Taylor's bed into the room that Ian and Brayden share. Now we have the two matching bed frames back together again (Taylor and Ian used to share before we moved here...) They look really nice, but it's very crowded because the crib is still in the room too!

Ian is so excited for Brayden to graduate to a "big boy" bed, but so far Brayden has shown little interest... if given the choice he prefers the crib, and hey, as long as he can't climb out of it, so do I! Here's the two boys hanging out together in the new bed - Brayden thinks it's just his own personal trampoline!
Megan didn't get any new bedroom stuff this week, but I do have a project in the garage to finish for her room... it's a headboard made of out picket fence boards. I think it will turn out cute, I just haven't had the energy to work on it until recently when the garage starting cooling down at night... finally! I'm very proud of the quilt on her bed, I designed it myself (with the help of a quilting website) and after 3-4 years, it's still holding up pretty well!

Today was a Great Day!

Ever have one of those days, where things just go well??? Today was one of those days for me! I got up this morning and spent a bunch of time decluttering problem spots in my house - my desk (which is supposed to be for scrapbooking, but is so piled with stuff I can't use it for that anymore), the counter by the phone (huge dump zone for the whole family), and the area by the front door (another dump zone for the whole family). It felt good to get rid of stuff and put things away... I hate surface clutter, but I have so much of it! Then I got to take a friend to lunch for her birthday (Happy Birthday again, Jenn) at YC's Mongollian Grill. I ate myself sick, but it was sooo worth it! I spent a little bit of time on finishing touches for the boys' room and made dinner, which I barely touched because I was still stuffed from lunch! Then we all played a fun board game (called Whoonu?) and everyone had fun and there were no fights (miracle!). Then put younger kids to bed, and Megan and Taylor stayed up with us to watch Heroes (we're catching up from earlier in the week). Okay, all 4 of us were completely grossed out when Claire cut off her toe!

Also, just want to take a minute and thank Jenn (since it is her birthday, after all) for being such a good friend to me! I'm so grateful our paths have crossed down here in the desert where we both struggle to feel at home (especially in the fall and it's still so darn HOT)! Jenn, you truly are a kindred spirit!

The Many Faces of Intersession!!!

I've had an epiphany this week - we're just never satisfied with what we have. For weeks, I've been looking forward to intersession (fall break that lasts a grand total of 18 days) just because we could relax and get some projects done around the house. So, here we are 12 days in and I'm wondering why I like break so much.... Here's a list of the things I love and hate about school vacation:

• I LOVE not making lunches for kids each morning!
• I HATE hearing "I'm bored" at 10:00 a.m.
• I LOVE being able to get up slowly and not rush around getting kids out the door.
• I HATE how many extra dishes I have to wash each day with 5 bodies home all day.
• I LOVE the freedom to stay in my pj's until noon.
• I HATE it when the kids stay in their pj's all day (especially when they don't brush their teeth all day either!)
• I LOVE having a babysitter at home all day, so I can run errands ALONE!
• I HATE the phone calls every five minutes from Ian, "mom, can I have an otter pop?"
• I LOVE having extra kids to help with more chores than they normally have time for.
• I HATE the fact that while the kids are home, my house is a perpetual pig sty... cleaning does nothing... it's a disaster again in 5 minutes flat!
• I LOVE not having homework to deal with!
• I HATE having to plan something fun everyday to keep my kids away from the TV/XBOX.
• I LOVE going on vacation in the off-peak season.
• I HATE how exhausted I am when we get back from something that was supposed to be a vacation, but wasn't relaxing at all!

And so it goes.... only six more days before we are back to school... whew... maybe then, I can actually have a clean house for at least an hour!!!

My Favorite Calendar!!!

I was so excited when I was perusing the dollar bins at Michaels today to find this calendar!!! I love this style and it's very unique and can be difficult to find in stores! I've been using this style of calendar for years and it's just the best format ever for people with more than 2 kids!!!

If you doulbe click on the picture below, you can see how the format works - when you first use one like this, the format can be hard to get used to, but it doesn't take long to fall in love with it! It's so great to have room to write everyone's activities in a separate block for each day! I use one column for each of the kids and then the last one for the parents!

So, if you are interested, head to Michael's... they are just $1!!! There are lots of other calendars there too, all for only a dollar! What a great deal today!

Young Men's Havasupai Trip

Well, we finally did it! After three grueling days of hiking (52.1 miles in total according to my GPS), braving the elements (which weren't actually that bad), and combating the wildlife (mainly fox, raccoon, and jumping field mice which all seemed to be hungry), everyone made it home in one piece. Although everyone had at least a blister, scrape, and/or some sort of muscle ache. Any hardship, however, was far outweighed by the spectacular views, fortified friendships, and opportunity to teach the boys the value of sticking with a goal and relying on prayer (A sincere prayer was actually needed on the way home, because I almost ran out of gas! Who could blame me at $3.19/gallon?). All in all, the trip was action packed and very rewarding. Below are a couple of the 375 photos and videos that I snapped along the way:


Day 1.5 (Wednesday; October 3, 2007 (Day 1 was actually the drive up (~280 miles) and setting up camp in the parking lot) )

• Hiked 11.5 miles to base camp along Havasu Creek (somehow I did not come away with a picture of our base camp?)

• A stop at Havasu Village to visit with Elder and Sister Smith at the meeting house for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

• Hiked ~1 miles (round trip) from base camp to Havasu Falls

• Hike 2 miles (round trip) to Navajo Falls. The boys (and leaders) especially got crazy here and several jumped off the waterfall into the shivering water below (you be the judge on how high it was)

Taylor jumping off Navajo Falls


Day 2 (Thursday; October 4, 2007)

• Hike 22.5 miles (roundtrip) from Havasu Falls Base Camp to Grand Canyon CO River Crossing. Mooney Falls stop was amazing (~300 foot waterfall; no one was jumping)

Day 3 (Friday; October 5, 2007)

• Hiked 15.3 miles from our Base Camp at Havasu Creek to the parking lot at Hualapai Hilltop parking lot

Along the way, we

• Assisted the boys on 3 seperate service projects (pulling weeds, yard trash pick-up, and giant tumbleweed removal)
• Ate lunch at the church with Elder and Sister Smith
• Drove back ~280 miles to Chandler, AZ (made it to the nearest gas station outside Seligman with 4 miles to spare on the tank)