I Feel A Revolt Coming On!

It's not even officially December yet (I still have 1 hour and 26 minutes left) and I already want to revolt. Why is it that the month we're celebrating peace, love and the birth of Christ we instead have a calendar chock full of obligations? I can't stand it, and my calendar isn't even totally and completely crazy yet.

I don't want to go to our ward Christmas party or Randy's work party or my extended family Christmas party!! The only holiday gatherings that sound appealing to me right now are Hannah's cookie exchange and my book club Christmas exchange. Is that so wrong??

I've already mentioned how next week I have both book clubs and the cookie exchange, but I also have Activity Days and my extended family Christmas party, a camp meeting ($#@!) already, a k12 field trip, and a couple other things that I can't remember but whose dates are floating around annoyingly in my head. I want to shout "stop the insanity" from the rooftops, but I have no idea how I'd get up there.

So this is my rant for today. Peace be unto you, because it isn't with me.

**Do you begrudge the many holiday obligations
or are you a well-adjusted sort of person?
Do I just need some Ritalin or what?**

"It's frickin freezing Mr. Bigglesworth"

{The view through my iced over windshield.}

Seriously, we're having a major cold front or something, because it's breezy and SO COLD! I was outside this morning hanging garlands (I thought since it was sunny it would be a nice day to do this) on our fence and had to look over my shoulder to see if I was downwind from an iceberg. I ended up wearing my winter coat (which rarely gets used since I'm always HOT), gloves, a scarf wrapped around my face, and my ipod in my ears. The scarf helped out immensely, but it took my a 1/2 hour to figure out that's what I should use. Duh.

So last night when the sleep over with Robyn's kids fell through (because of a miscommunication) me, Randy and the kids went to get our Christmas tree. We've never gone at night before, so it ended up being rather picturesque (you know how I love that) with snow on the trees and the lights glowing nicely; with the added bonus of no one else being there. We wandered around looking for the perfect tree for us. This usually means a smallish Charlie Brown-type tree since our family room is so small. We found a great one (which seems identical to last year's tree) for $41. Is that expensive or not? I thought it seemed a little pricey for such a scrawny tree, but then what do I know?

We came home from our chilly tree shopping outing to find a nice Christmas cd from Julie left on our porch. That was such a nice surprise, especially considering she lives in Provo. I don't know if she's got family around here or is trying to save postage, but that's quite a drive for a cd drop-off. Thanks Julie!! We listened to it several times while decorating the house. It was most enjoyable.


I was so happy to finally be getting our house decorated for Christmas. I don't know if it's my time-warp issues or what, but it seems like ages since Thanksgiving already and I feel like I'm missing precious time to be surrounded by holiday goodness. Is it freaking anyone else out that it's just over 3 and a half weeks until Christmas?! I feel like we're missing a week in there somewhere. I hate feeling rushed, especially during Christmas time so I'm trying not to leave things to the last minute.


I can't even tell you how much I'm loving this red buffet. I absolutely love how it fills out this space, and I love being able to decorate it. I thoroughly enjoyed having a fall display on there, and now am pleased to have a Christmas scene. This is just the first set up and will most likely change, but for now I really like it.

Note: I started writing this post today at 1:45pm, but then got "kidnapped" by Claudia and Alfredo for real this time and ended up at The Training Table for a late lunch, then took the kids shopping at Target for warmer hats and gloves, then went to Temple Square to see the lights (because we just couldn't stand the thought of not freezing our nards off outside!), a visit at Adam and Amy's house, and ended with Landon puking all over the floor as soon as we got home. Good times. There are far more details to all of these outings, but for now I must say good night!

**My sister Lori needs volunteers for Friday
at Beauty School in PG. She needs to do a woman's
haircut at 9:30am, then a men's clipper haircut
at 1:00pm. Volunteers need to plan to be
there for a couple hours and to be open to
the teaching/learning process. Her teacher
will be there so nothing drastic should happen,
but she wants to make sure everyone knows
that she's practicing. If possible, please help!**

The winner is...

So yesterday afternoon I had a house full of kids with my own 2, the neighbor kid Benjamin, and then 2 of Robyn's kids Austin and Olivia. Things were loud and active over here, but I was giddily loading my new Sarah McLachlan cd into itunes and sorting through other Christmas songs to create my holiday playlist. Then...

Landon: "Mom, there's a car sitting in our driveway."
Me: "Really? That's weird." (I then peeked out the window and didn't recognize the SUV, I figured it was someone from church dropping something off so I walked over to the front door.)

Opening the front door who do I see?? Claudia and Alexei! What in the world??? I didn't even know she was in town. She's done this to me before so I really shouldn't be surprised, but I was still shocked to see my friend from California standing on my snowy front porch.


Claudia: "We're kidnapping you for lunch Missy."
Me: "I've got a house full of kids here?!"
Claudia: "Who are all these kids anyway?"


So Alfredo and Jorvik came in the house as well and it turned into a snow party. Claudia's 3 year old has never been in snow before so he was excited to go out and play with the rest of the kids. So the bundling fest began. We have a bucket in our coat closet full of gloves and hats, but we still had a hard time finding the proper glove mats to outfit everybody. It was quite the production, but we finally got everybody outside.


Poor Alexei was being tag-teamed by Claudia and Alfredo. He's not used to wearing so many clothes and the poor kid didn't like it. Plus we only had mismatched gloves for him, so he had to wear one Scooby Doo and one Spiderman glove. Oh the humanity.


Then another car pulled into the driveway, and I thought it was Amy H. because it looked like her car, but noooooo. It was Pam! I knew she'd been in Utah visiting her family because we'd played phone tag a couple times and hadn't been able to get together, but I also knew she was leaving on the 27th so I didn't plan on seeing her. Alas, sweet Pam decided to stop by on her way to her parents' house to pack her suitcases to leave in an hour. How nice!

So Pam and Claudia got to meet and we got a picture of the 3 of us, thanks to Claudia's husband Alfredo. I can't even tell you how bizarre it was to have all of them in my house at one time. Their visits could NOT have been more unexpected.


Pam didn't get to stay very long, but it was nice to see her. Claudia and Alfredo stayed and for an hour or so. It's always fun talking to them, so it was enjoyable (especially with the kids outside playing).

Claudia brought a box of good mail for me (that she had already packaged to mail). As I was opening it she said...

Claudia: "It's really not for you Missy."
Me: "Alright?"
Claudia: "Well, one third of it is for you."
Me: Laughing and looking confused.

I opened the box to find 3 identical journals, one for me, one for Amie, and one for Michelle. I don't know what their cards say, but Claudia has a way of being hilariously blunt when it comes to me.

Missy Jill:
May this note book open your eyes to
what your interior self wants to achieve.
Lv Claudia

I read this card to my sister Lori later and she said, "Only Claudia could get away with saying something like that." That's so true!

**Do you have any crazy character-type friends like Claudia?
How do you feel about pop-in visits?
Are you okay with people being blunt with you?**

So Liz, you're the big winner because you were the only person who guessed Claudia. Pam was a tricky one because she doesn't have a blog, but comments regularly on a lot of them. I'll get a package ready for you this afternoon. Congrats!

Mystery Guests Game

Whoever can most closely guess which two blogging friends unexpectedly stopped by my house (separately) yesterday will get a good mail package from me. (If I already talked to you, you're not allowed to guess....Michelle, Amie, Lori, Robyn, Randy, etc.)

Who do you think they are????

Mood Setting Melodies & Attack of the Treat Mongers!

Thanks for your Christmas music advice everybody! I went to Target this morning and bought Sarah McLachlan's new cd (thanks Kelly for the recommendation and for commenting for the first time). I also bought Christmas cds from John Berry, SheDaisy and Jewel for great prices "used" from Amazon.com. I'm so excited. I'm going to have to restrain myself from making my holiday playlists until I get all these new ones.


While out running errands this morning I also scored this haul of books at DI for $7.25. I've been documenting my great finds throughout the year and can't believe how many books I've bought. Check out my great gallery of books here. I actually had another huge stack of like 25 books, but I forgot to take a picture before I started sending them to people. Bummer.

{Bedhead boy and Austin}

I was supposed to watch all 3 of Robyn's kids today, but baby Ashley was throwing up all night so she stayed home with my mom (who was already staying home with my brother Andrew who is also sick). Poor Robyn, she only has 4 days left of her 21-day trip so it's not very convenient to have sick kids. Fortunately Ashley is doing pretty well and is fine with my mom, so Robyn can still run her errands and not lose one of her precious last days. My kids were thrilled that Austin and Olivia ended up coming over, especially since they had been told this morning that weren't going to get to come. I really, really, really hope they don't get sick too. (They've all been harassing me for treats already, hence the treat monger reference in my title.)

This is what the mountains near us look like today. We're having rainy snow down by us so nothing is sticking to the ground, but the mountains got covered. I must say it's adding tremendously to putting me in the Christmas spirit (along with this wonderful Sarah McLachlan cd).

I'm trying keep myself organized so this month doesn't run away from me. Next week I have my ward book club, my real book club and Christmas gift exchange, Hannah's Christmas Cookie Exchange, our ward Christmas Party and our extended family party. Yikes! I'm trying to read the book club books this week so I'm not frantically reading next week. Of course, that means I'm running the risk of not remembering enough to discuss them well, but at least they'll be finished.

**How do you stay organized for the holidays?
Does the weather affect your mood for Christmas?
Do you do much Christmas shopping online?
What's your target date for sending cards?**

The Honking Goose Returns

You must forgive my cheesy title. I'm trying to step up my titles, particularly now that so many of us are using RSS feeds and see the title before seeing the post. It's just so easy for me to default to generic titles, but I fear the opposite may be the land of cheese. What do you think?


As I sat in primary honking like the sick (but healing) goose that I am I felt my usual pang of longing for the beautiful singing voice I wish I had. I try to be thankful that I can belt out the primary songs with the kids without anyone turning to stare or scold me, but it's seriously painful and sad. It's one of my greatest wishes to have a good voice and be able to sing the way I wish I could. (I'm counting on it in the next life.) I should also add that we sang two of my very favorite hymns in Sacrament meeting today "Because I Have Been Given Much" and "For The Beauty of the Earth," regrettably my cough medicine hadn't kicked in yet so I hacked through both songs, but I still loved hearing and singing them both.

But I digress, my real purpose in writing today is to say I'm finally happy about hearing Christmas music! Two of our local radio stations have been playing it since before Halloween (gasp!) but every time I would come across their stations I would hurry and change it. I just wasn't ready. Apparently I have to get past Thanksgiving before I can officially welcome in the holiday season. That seems reasonable to me.


It sure is taking me a long time to get to the part where I explain how delighted I've been this afternoon (before and after my nap of course) loading my Christmas cds into itunes. I'm so pleased with the possibilities open to me with this technology, and feel quite stupid that I didn't do this last year. Apparently I thought I had to have an ipod to do such things, when really I could have been using itunes at home all along. (Foolish, foolish girl with no vision!) I now have big plans to make great Christmas playlists so that I no longer have to deal with the frustration of listening to perfectly nice holiday ballads, only to have them broken up by some awful rendition of Santa Claus is Coming To Town.


I tend to favor my Amy Grant Christmas cds, but also enjoy Vince Gill's (it's really good), Celine Dion's, Manheim Steamroller, The Vienna Boys Choir, various compilation cds, and my Celtic Christmas cd. I'm open to any new holiday music unless it's jazz related or is obnoxiously choppy like Destiny's Child or Jessica Simpson (I have to draw the line somewhere). I could use some suggestions.

**What Christmas music (both artists and songs) do you love?
Do you think I should lean toward cheesy titles or regular?
When were you ready for Christmas music?
Did you decorate your house yet?

A plethora of yogurt

I woke up at 3:45am in an absolute panic as my mind tried to configure ways to arrange the 19 people I would be taking pictures of Saturday morning. I have no idea why I woke up suddenly like that, but I had to talk myself down so I could go back to sleep. I got up for real at 7:30, which is a tad early for a Saturday morning or at least it feels that way when I have to shower and get ready to be somewhere by 9:00.

I had an large-group configuration epiphany while in the shower this morning, and came up with the idea to bring a bench I have in my house. The reason this was a brilliant idea for me is because I've never had to bring any seating to any photo shoots, so I've never thought of that as a possibility before. (Duh!) It ended up working out wonderfully, and everyone cooperated well. The poor Arizonians were freezing to death and were probably too cold to fidget. (This was Jana's whole family. You can see more photos here.)


I bought groceries today, and as I loaded more yogurt into the fridge I realized that we already had quite a plentiful supply. You see, I only eat Vanilla yogurt, so all the other flavors are for Randy (and occasionally Whitney). Apparently he hasn't been eating much of it lately, so now we've got half a shelf covered in yogurt. I find this amusing.


I got this cute card (sorry the picture is blurry, I refuse to use my flash) from Tasha today along with a bunch of wax seals with the impression of a bee stamped into them. I love these! She said she tried to adhere them to labels, but the heat made them warp so she just sent them to me to use for something else. Thanks Tasha!


I also got a little good mail from myself today. After reading Michelle's post from November 13th I just had to order the book she was quoting.


I'm so excited about this book because I love all the powerful quotes, I love the clean design and feminine colors, and just think it's a cool book. I think it would make a great gift for a friend (just a little Christmas idea for you).

{click to enlarge so that I don't look so slanty-eyed}
Me, my Mom, Lori, Robyn & Amy

This afternoon I got together with my mom and my sisters for a ladies night out. It's kind of funny that it took Robyn coming to visit from Australia for us to go out together, because we really never have before. I had Adam take some pictures of us in his backyard and I must say he had some fun with it. I had instructed him to zoom in above the waist, but he pretty much did anything but that. Click here for the rest of the funny photos. (And yes, I just LOVE being the fat one.)

After our failed/funny photo shoot we went to see one of the worst movies ever! (Had we noticed this poster on the way in we might have been more prepared.) We were under the impression that this movie was a love story that transcends time, but instead it was some sort of funky sci-fi (which I hate) confusing, yoga, tai chi, fountain of youth, love story that none of us understood. The only redeeming factor for me was that it was 2 hours of Hugh Jackman (he's delicious no matter what he looks like). My mom spent the majority of the movie out in the hall with Ashley (who was happy but very loud), and she ended up having way more fun than we did. We had a good dinner at Buca di Beppo after the movie so all was not lost.

**What flavors of yogurt to you like?
Do you incorporate your stress into your dreams?
Does your family have Ladies' Night Out?
Have you seen or heard of this awful movie?**

Happy Birthday Christina!

Is it only Friday?

I sure wish I could shake this time warp thing I've got going on, because I can't seem to keep track of what day it is. I'm constantly afraid that I'm supposed to be somewhere else, but then when I regroup and figure out what day it is I'm okay. Is this early senility or just a busy life? So my point is I can't believe it's only Friday. Having a holiday on a Thursday really does a number on me. Randy loves it because he gets a 5 day weekend, but for me it doesn't feel like that.


Our Thanksgiving was pretty nice. We all went to my aunt's house in Sandy to gather with my mom's whole family. We don't see each other too often so we often walk that line of not having anything substantial to talk to each other about, but still being glad to see each other. My brother is seriously campaigning for our family to break off and do our own thing for Thanksgiving from now on. We had a heated conversation about this later in the evening when we were all back at my folks' house. I think we'd all prefer to just be with our family, but my mom still wants to be a part of the extended gathering so I feel like that's what we should do. The conversation added some drama to our holiday, but I couldn't help but feel a little proud that we were discussing this issue out in the open instead of with each other after the event.


I spent today at Michelle's house tending all the kids so that she could take Marc out for his birthday. It's so nice to be so comfortable at her house because I never feel like a fish out of water when I'm there. I know where everything is (except the Pyrex measuring cups) and can take care of the kids without any trouble. Eva did great for me, she took a 2-hour nap and was charming and cute the rest of the time. I even got to read my book for awhile in Marc's comfy chair.


I came home to find good mail from Hawaiian Elizabeth and from Collette. What a surprise to get this package from Elizabeth, I'm not even sure how she got my address since I don't have her info on my good mail master list (though it's on there now) and therefore she doesn't have a copy of it either. Crazy. She sent me some Hawaiian chocolates, cool papers, and fun stuff to use when I scrapbook my pictures from next spring's trip to Paris (I still can't believe I'm going to go). Thanks Elizabeth!


Collette sent me a very sweet thank-you note that just made me smile. Thanks Collette!


And I got this cute thank-you note (on Wednesday) from Hannah. She's out of control with the creativity. I really don't know how she keeps coming up with so many great ideas. Thanks Hannah!


I hope those of you that braved black Friday survived it. I am definitely not cut out for crowds and chaos no matter how low the prices are. I was happy to sleep in, read blogs this morning, and then get ready at a leisurely pace before heading to Michelle's house.

**How was your Thanksgiving?
What's your view on breaking off from the extended family
to celebrate Thanksgiving with a more manageable group?
What kind of great deals did you get today?**

Happy Birthday Jen!

Thanksgiving Gratitude

Michelle sent me this beautiful gratitude journal in the mail yesterday. It was such a treat to get one of her brilliant creations. I can make gratitude journals too (and have been lately), but I'd rather have one of Michelle's great ones, especially because every night when I go to write in it I will be reminded that I have a wonderful and generous friend who shares her talents with me. Thanks Michelle! (I wrote in it last night.)

So for my Thanksgiving post I would like to focus on the blessing of blogging. Last year at this time I was still reading the blogs of all the scrapbooking celebrities and feeling rather covetous about their fun lives. I didn't start considering the possibility of starting my own until some time in December when I finally thought "what the heck, I'll give it a whirl." I had no idea what a difference it would make in my life. Here is my top ten list of blogging blessings.

1. I have a huge circle of friends all over the country.
2. Good mail is epidemic and I love it!
3. I have reconnected with Kristi, Jennifer Vu, and Julie.
4. I have an outlet to share my joys, frustrations, concerns, and quirks.
5. I have had less "down" days because of our community of women.
6. I am writing and taking photos EVERY DAY!
7. I have 426 posts about life so far this year, that's the best journal I've ever kept.
8. I think about others more than myself, and am constantly wanting to reach out to others.
   
9. I have written my testimony and shared my thoughts about the gospel.
10. I no longer read all the scrapbooking celebrity blogs!

Thanks for the gift you've all given me this year!
**How has blogging changed your life?**
(even if you don't have a blog)

What a mess!

Here is some of the messy aftermath of yesterday's Gratitude Journal-Making with the Activity Day girls. I had a full house with 13 girls here! They were very enthusiastic about this project, but man did they make a mess. I forget that they are so young and tend to give them too much credit, but I should know better by now. They soaked the stamps in black ink, so much so that my stamps now look like printing press pieces. They didn't listen to me when I mentioned that they should clean off the stamps before switching colors, so now my ink pads are all discolored with black ink (I really should have taken the black out of the container, what was I thinking?).


Here is one of the older girls' finished journal. It's kind of funny how crazy she went with the stamps, but I think that's rather cool. The journals were all pretty heinous, but the girls loved them and seemed excited to start writing in them at night. It's nice how uninhibited they are about creating, they don't have any of the style restraints like I have. I consider this activity a success, but it took me quite awhile to clean up everything and to shake-off the mess factor. (Nothing was ruined so it really doesn't matter that everything is thrashed looking, it was just shocking to see.)


Hannah stopped by in the middle of Activity Days to return a couple books I loaned her and to give me these two cute cards. The thank-you card included this package of rub-ons, so I'll be using those to make a set of cards today while I have Creative Wednesday at Michelle's house.


This cute card made by Hannah is an invitation to a cookie exchange she's hosting in December. (How clever is this invitation?) I've never made 12 dozen cookies before and am a little concerned. If you have any good recipes for this please email me and let me know. (You all have my email address already right?)

So today we're off to Michelle's house to have Creative Wednesday. The kids are out of school so it should be blissful for them. Hopefully they'll play outside a lot since the weather is nice. They're always good, but sometimes if they're inside and too close to us the chaos gets to me. I'll be working on finishing some good mail items that I meant to have ready yesterday (drat).

**How would you feel about your stuff getting soaked in ink?
Have you ever participated in a cookie exchange?
What do you have planned for your Thanksgiving Break?**

Blogger spell check suggested dichloride for discolored. Um...okay.

26 Little Indians

{click to enlarge}

I spent the morning in Whitney's classroom helping the kids make their Indian headbands. I don't know if this is politically correct anymore, but it sure is cute. The teacher asked me to take a group picture of the class (since I always bring my camera when I work there on Tuesdays). It was hilarious trying to get 26 kids to look at the camera and say "pumpkin pie." Out of 10 shots, this is the best one. The teacher positioned the kids on this bench even though the drinking fountain was right in front of them. Oh well.

Last night I felt so sick (clogged head, weary, coughing and stuffed up) that I went to bed at 9:30pm. I started a new book and read for a few minutes. It's weird to go to bed that early and to be able to sleep through until 7:30am. I'm feeling better today but my head feels like it weighs 5 pounds more than usual, not good. I feel like I can smell the antibiotics I'm taking and that sicks me out.


I've got Activity Days at my house this afternoon. We're talking about gratitude and making gratitude journals, so last night I was cutting paper so I'd have it ready for today. I'm not sure how it's going to go, but I think I'll have them use glue sticks instead of mod podge and we won't do a top coat. I'm sure they'll love doing this and hopefully will get into the habit of listing 5 things or more a night that they're thankful for that day.


I got these cute things from Crystalyn yesterday. She sent me this cute notebook and this little recipe book. I'm hoping that I'm going to be inspired to start planning and preparing meals, because I just never feel like doing that. Thanks Crystalyn!

**What do you think about
making Indian stuff at school?
When was the last time you went to bed at 9:30pm?
Any good ideas to with my Gratitude stuff for Activity Days?
Are you sending good mail this week?**

P.S. Target is selling the Cadbury mini eggs 3 for $5 this week! I bought 6 packages and am wondering if I should have gotten more. This could be a problem.

Time Warp Anyone?

Is it just me or is anyone else experiencing a time warp? It feels like November just started, so how is it possible that Thanksgiving is Thursday and that all the Christmas hoopla will begin the next day? It's freaking me out. Maybe this is just an ongoing problem with me, but I seem to have a problem with the passage time. When I was younger (and a student) time was always defined by events and assignments, but now I seem to have to take life on a day-by-day basis depending on my obligations for the day. It could be because now I'm keeping track of our whole family's obligations so it's not just about me, but for some reason I feel like the holiday season is creeping up on me and I'm in a panic about it.

{For real??}

I always think I'm going to plan ahead and make/buy gifts early on, but I'm realizing that I'm incapable of doing this because if I don't feel Christmasy, then I don't feel like doing those things. Maybe I like the hustle of the Christmas season and don't want things calmly done ahead of time. Hmmm. It's a point for me to ponder really. I guess I just always feel like it will all be over just about the time I finally catch up.

So yesterday was our primary program and it went well. Whitney knew her part and said it fine, except that she turned her head to look at me (I was sitting over to the far right on the stand) while she said it. Also, before she started to say her part she paused to look down at her hand because I had written the letters HF on it to remind her to say Heavenly Father, rather than Jesus. Most likely Randy and I were the only ones who knew what she was doing, but it was funny. I blubbered my way through "Hands Around The World" even though I've sung it with the primary kids about 100 times by now. It turns me into a ball of emotion every time. My singing voice was horrific yesterday. I kid you not, I sounded like a honking goose! I tried so hard to sing well, but I was so clogged up and such a mess that it was a major strain. I feared people would notice and beg me to stop, but then again my ears were kind of plugged up too so maybe I wasn't singing as loudly as I thought.

{The cheat-sheet Randy made for Whitney (she can't read yet)
to practice her part with. It was most effective.}

I had the most luxurious Sunday nap under my new softest blanket from Amy H. It was such a delight. I absolutely adore Sunday afternoons. After we eat dinner, Randy and I always head to bed for a nap while the kids watch a movie together. Randy always zonks out in like 3 minutes, but I revel in the cozy and read my book until I'm groggy. It's delicious. The phone doesn't ring, no one comes to the door, there are no neighbor kids here, and it's just blissfully peaceful. I often find myself thinking "this is my favorite part of my whole week." Of course, by Sunday night I'm mentally planning my week and am anxious to do the things I want to do, but those first moments of lying on my bed and situating myself in the cozy are just the best.


So today is a day of school, laundry, organizing and sending good mail. I talked to Michelle for awhile, then picked up Whitney from school, went to Robert's (there's a 50% coupon this week), the post office (there was actually a line at the automated machine, #$@!), and to the store to buy a patch for Landon's Scout shirt. Good times.

{The decoration I bought with my 50% off coupon.}

**What sort of time issues do you have?
What do you love about Sundays?
What kind of a singer are you?**

Beyond Soft

We met up at the movie theater with all the cousins yesterday. That's a whole lot of kids to wrangle in a movie but we did it. We saw Happy Feet at the Thanksgiving Point theater. The movie was pretty cute, but I must say I hate it when kid movies try to make a statement. (It seems so out of context to me.) The liked it and everyone did well even though it was kind of long.

Pretty much the best part for the kids was running around and being crazy together in the theater lobby after the show. Fortunately it was in-between movies so there weren't many other people in the lobby, but once again I feared that we'd get kicked out of there. (And yes, I always encourage Whitney to run with a sucker in her mouth, but only if scissors aren't available.)


We were trying to decide where to go to eat, and ended up hanging out in the lobby for like 15 minutes. It was kind of a weird place to chat with family, but I guess when you're coming from all different locations that's what you've got to do. (Robyn, me and our kids all went to JCW's.)

Christina sent me this fun package yesterday. It was fun to get something from her, and once again let me say how amazing it is to be receiving things from people I have never met. Thanks Christina!


When we returned home from our outing to the movies and dinner I found this bag of goodies waiting for me on my porch. Amy H. gave me the world's softest blanket! Words cannot describe the cozy-factor with this blanket. I'm just giddy about it and used in last night to sleep and loved it! Randy and the kids are jealous of my great blanket (and my generous friends), and after sleeping with it last night I can tell you they really should be jealous because I'm definitely not sharing! Amy also gave me a tube of Airborne (to combat this pesky cold) and a cd. Thanks Amy!

Cold Update: I'm still clogged up and am wondering how I'm going to be able to sing during the primary program today. I'm not a good singer on a healthy day, but I've got a clogged/nasal sound going and my range is even smaller than usual. Too bad it's not producing a seductive, raspy throat sound (Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat what are they feeding you?). Oh well. At least I won't be hacking through the program because that prescription cough medicine works fabulously!

**Have you seen Happy Feet?
What bugs you about kid movies?
Do you have a painfully soft blanket?
Did you catch my Friends' reference?**

To borrow an idea from Kristi, I simply must refer you to several blogs. Check out:
Elisa's great post about daring to be yourself.
Crystalyn's post in response to Jenn's post about serving others.