Mrs. Sparkly

8 Sep

Part 4 of 4

This might be my favorite award. 

Mrs. Sparkly Award

The sparkly award has 10 commandments which is perfect for someone like me who loves rules.

1.  **Describe yourself in 7 words: Brave, Happy, Hard-working, Creative, Reflective, Quick, Goal-oriented.

2.  **What keeps you up at night? great books & exciting plans.  also small children.

3.  **Whom would you like to be? I tried to think of an actress that I would love to be, but just came up blank.  So I googled “Who would I like to be” and got a couple of pretty interesting reads.  I’ll share:
College 101: Who do I want to be?
Create a Character Study for your Ideal Self.

I’m actually thinking up a blog posts on the benefits of ideals. So exciting, huh? Try to restrain yourselves from mobbing my house for the pre-press version.

4.  **What am I wearing right now? Puffin Pajamas (thank you, Amanda)

5.  **What scares you? Tall places and the dark.

6.  **What are the best and worst things about blogging? The best thing about blogging is I like to write and read about my friends & family.  The worst thing is when no one comments on a post that I think is particularly clever.  Then I’m like…..but….hello?…are you there?….

7.  **If I could change one thing about myself, what would it be? My compulsion to tell fibs if I think the person I’m talking to won’t like the truth.

8.  **Slankets, yes or no? What the heck is a slanket?…googled it.  and Yes I would like one.

9.  **You can never have too many…… Lindt chocolate truffles.

10.  **Nominations:  And the Mrs. Sparkly award goes to Rachel at the Hatch House who is so creative and definitely adds spice to life.  Just check out these awesome Halloween Costumes (I hope that link works)

So fill in the blank.  What can you never have too many of?  I’d love to know.

One Lovely Blog

6 Sep
Rules

Seven lovely things about me: 

1. My favorite bird is the cardinal.  
2. I am not even close to the best piano player in anywhere, but I enjoy my own playing to anyone else’s because I get the joy of creation and the joy of listening at the same time.
3. The best thing in life is family game night at Mom’s house. 
4. The habit that that keeps surfacing when I least expect it is when I tell someone I have a goal and my head says to me, “Yeah but you never do what you say you’re going to do.”  I’ve really got to teach that voice in my head that if she can’t say something nice, she shouldn’t say nothin’ at all.


5. Best breakfast I ever had was at a bed & breakfast in Eureka Springs.  It was the fluffiest oven pancake ever, covered in fresh strawberries.  The cook offered seconds and nobody else had seconds, so I didn’t either. I really regret that choice.  
6. The most embarrassing thing ever:  
When I was in 8th grade Social Studies class, the teacher was talking about laws and what do we do if they are unfair.  I had just watched Les Miserables and raised my hand.  “I know about an unfair law,” I said and began with the guy who was sentenced to prison for 5 years for stealing a loaf of bread and how he finally escaped 19 years later.  I was so engrossed in the story that I kept going and by and by I realized it, I had been talking like FOREVER.  The teacher and the entire class were silent and staring at me.  I had described the entire story to the end, but suddenly I couldn’t remember the end because I was so horrified that I had been talking for so long and everyone was looking at me.  I’m not sure how I managed to end it and shut up, but that horror stayed with me so strongly that I HATED the thought of Les Miserables for the next 10 years.  
That teacher was my favorite teacher and I invited her to my wedding reception.  She came and talking to me, found out that I had majored in Elementary Education in college.  She said, “I always thought you would be a lawyer.  I can’t remember why I thought that.”  
Dun Dun Dun.  I know why.  
It’s because she watched a little freckle-faced 8th grader full of fire and indignation rant at the thought of injustice and she thought that kid in pigtail braids might grow up and do something about it.  

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?”

~Marianne Williamson, Return to Love

As a lovely blogger, I would like to nominate Carly The Evans Express.  She shares her family and her struggles and successes and I love reading her tiny adventures whenever she posts.  She is also a rockin’ kickboxer.

Part 3 of 4

Illuminating Blogger

6 Sep

Part 2 of 4

Rules

One illuminating thing about me:

I still think I’m going to find a doorway into Narnia one of these days.

And the person I feel whose blog is both informative and illuminating is Rena at The Spartan Experiment

She tried all the diet and exercise advice from Redbook for a whole year and told the world what worked and what didn’t.  That takes guts.

Beatiful Blogger

6 Sep

Somewhat recently, I was generously given four blog awards by Jon over at ldsconvertblog.com

He once shaved his glorious hair off for a good cause, which is super cool.

I was only too happy to receive awards with words like “lovely,” “sparkly,” “beautiful,” and “illuminating.”   Thank you, Jon, you are a real sweetie pie.

Along with the awards came permission to bend the rules a bit, so I will.  I will only be nominating one person for each award, because that makes it more special.

Rules

Seven Things about me:

1.  There are 2 things that while I would never judge anyone else if it happened to them, I am horrified and embarrassed if they happen to me.

snoring:  this just doesn’t fit with the image I have of myself and I have no control over it, but I did snore a couple of times while I was pregnant last year.  I get positively squeaky if my dear husband brings it up.  I really do not think it’s a very gentlemanly thing to mention, wouldn’t you agree?

car trouble:  I feel so ghetto/trailer trash when my car breaks down.  Like, gosh, can’t I even maintain a vehicle?

2.  I suffer from a teensy bit of Beiber Fever.  I just really like his version of “Love Me”

3.  Whenever there is something that I need to do, but don’t want to do, my house gets really clean.  Like, suddenly the floor must be mopped right now, and the laundry must be folded, and the crayon marks must be scrubbed off the walls; all these things are more pressing than the thing I don’t want to do.

4.  Calling someone on the phone and asking them to do something is the thing I don’t want to do.  I am just not a phone person.  I can’t see the other person’s face and my cheek gets all sweaty where the phone touches it. urg.  The video phone with speaker phone that I got for Christmas from my dad is the best thing ever.

5.  Another thing I don’t like about phones is when people put me on hold to answer another call.  Hate that.

6. The clothing in my closet is organized by color and then subdivided by sleeve length.  The fronts all face north.  This makes me happy.

7.  Could I live without chocolate? Yes, but I would be sad and my children and Dear Husband would suffer.   I eat it all for them.

I’d like to pass the Beautiful Blogger Award to Melody because her blog is beautiful (she takes great pictures) and she puts so much of her loving heart into each post.

part 1 of 4

She said the man in the gaberdine suit was a spy.

3 Sep

So, every great blog must have a breathtakingly thrilling story of when the blogger (or bloggess) had a brush with greatness.  It isn’t just a blog thing either.  Every red-blooded American has to have a chance to meet fame.

Now I have not spoken to a country music legend, nor have I ever had Will Wheaton send me a picture of himself collating paper, nor has James Garner ever kissed me in front of an elevator.  (Oh how I wish that last one were true.  If I ever did meet James Garner in front of an elevator, I would probably freeze with my eyes huge–like his own personal garden statue–or worse, stare at my feet until he left—which is why he didn’t kiss me when we didn’t meet in front of an elevator because I didn’t jump up and down and gush, “Oh my gosh I LOVE you!!!” before staring at him with saucer eyes until he was forced to take action.

My close encounter with celebrity kind was not so close, though it was thrilling for me and my Mary Kay sister consultants.

About 3 1/2 years ago, I drove up to St.Louis for a Mary Kay conference and stayed with 2 friends in the Renaissance St. Louis Airport Hotel.  As we entered the lobby, we were detoured around to the side of the check in desk because George Clooney was there and they were filming a scene for his movie Up in the Air.

For a good 45 minutes, we got to watch them reshoot this scene where George (who I fell in love with during the movie One Fine Day) cuts in front of a lady in line at the check in desk because he is a member of the premier club and can.  We were very giddy–but quietly giddy because we didn’t want to be kicked out.

I watched Up in the Air when it came out on DVD and the scene we watched for nearly an hour took less than 5 seconds in the movie.  I kept rewinding it thinking– “Is that it?”  Poor actress, you hardly got to see her face and they edited out her one line –which might have been a good thing, since it was only a 2 word line and one of the words started with F.

I watched the commentary and the director mentioned us.  He said, all self important, “That’s right, a few hundred Mary Kay ladies showed up at the hotel for some convention or other while we were filming.  I’ve never seen so many pink velour leisure suits in my life.”   This was a dirty lie.  None of us were wearing velour leisure suits, we were wearing business suits and none of them were pink, although there was many much pink rolly luggage.  Not funny, Mr. Director.  Not funny at all.

Despite having a liar for a director, it was a pretty good movie.

So that was my chance to bask in the glow of Hollywood.  It was brief, but satisfying, and I don’t have to explain to my husband why I kissed James Garner when I was 18.

It’s the End of the World as We Know It

22 Aug

cake batter
So just in the last two days I have heard of two different people-make that one person and then another whole family–who when wanting a sweet treat will just open up a box of cake mix, mix it with a little water, and chow down.   
A whole cake mix!
Now I’m not judging–how parents raise a kid can cause them to do weird things–
I’ll just say this though, if I ever eat a cake mix out of a box with a spoon, you will know that I have truly reached rock bottom, like the bottomest bottom, and I have given up on the world and humanity.
buh!

This is the devil.
 On the bright side, while googling around for pictures of cake batter, I came across this recipe for Chocolate Mayonaise Cake–that’s right.
http://www.mamas-southern-cooking.com/mayonaise-cake.html#
I might try it.  It is a from scratch recipe, after all.

Pioneer Day Primary

6 Aug
The Lt. took this picure in Guatemala

I do love Sunday, and Fast Sunday is the best of all the Sundays, except maybe Christmas Sunday.  In our ward, there are a lot of people who are related.  This is fine until they all go somewhere else for a family reunion.
Then I lose a whole bunch of my Primary teachers.  They all got substitutes, but I had 2 other teachers missing who didn’t.  We also had about 15 visiting kids.  I discovered the missing teachers about halfway through the first hour of primary.  Luckily they were from classes where there are 2 teachers, so the kids weren’t alone, and I was able to find some last minute helpers to fill in.

You’d think that being ultimately responsible for the instruction of more than 80 children on Sunday would be very tiring.  I do have one or two teachers that like to stir up drama and occasionally they’ll stress me out, but I really love teaching the children and somehow it is energizing, not draining.

Last week was the Sunday after Pioneer Day  .  This is my favorite sharing time of the whole year.  I wore my pioneer dress and apron and gathered all the children on a blanket and told them stories of real children who crossed the plains 165 years ago.  Our theme for the year in primary is “Choose the Right”  so for this lesson, I talked about how the pioneer children chose the right, and so could we.  One of the stories I told them was about a family who went through the hole in the rock.  It is a great story.  You can read it here.  I think pioneer day might be the kids’ favorite sharing time of the whole year also.  I didn’t have to ask anyone to be quiet, at least.  They were all listening and still.

 

And there you have my theory of teaching.  You don’t need lots of bells and whistles–just a good story that is true that you care about and the kids will care about it too.

We each can learn much from our early pioneer ancestors, whose struggles and heartaches were met with resolute courage and an abiding faith in a living God. Thomas S. Monson

Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. Joel 1:3

South Dakota, camping style: part 6 Homeward Bound

2 Aug

Thursday we headed home.  We took an hour detour to drive through the Badlands.  It was awesome

We seriously considered extending our trip a day so we could camp and explore the Badlands, but I was feeling exceedingly unwell that morning and the camping facilities are very primitive.  I had to admit I didn’t think I could handle another day of possibly even less available plumbing. 

We continued on home, stopping only to see this:

Little Rascals

Vacation is fun and so is Going Home.

South Dakota camping style: Part 5, Harney Peak

2 Aug
Wednesday we started out early for Harney Peak.  We wanted to be well on our way to the top before the day got too hot.  We knew that hiking with all the kids would make us slower.  Harney Peak is the high point of South Dakota and the highest peek between the Rocky Mountains and the Pyrenees.  It is 3.5 miles to the top, but the elevation gain is only about 1000 feet, so most of the trail is not too steep.
 
Ben started out carrying Baby Dumpling in the baby pack; the rest of us had to hike on our own 2 feet.  Right from the get go, Cutie Pie did not want to hike.  “My legs are broken,” she told me.  Luckily, my trekking pole collapses down to just the right length for a small 3 year old.  I told her she could be the leader and she cheered up.
 
She got frustrated when the other kids refused to hike slowly behind her.  I used Aunt Katie’s trick of super powers next.
 
“Cutie Pie, how will we get to the next rock?  Lets use our Super Dinosaur Power/Super Running Power/Super Star Power/Super Butt Wiggle Power/Super Pooh Bear Jumping Power”  That got us a good deal further along the trail.
 

The views were spectacular along the way.  My photography skills don’t do it justice.
Blueberry Pie offered to carry Cutie Pie and she let him for 100-200 yards. Then I produced apples from my pack.
I promised her that if she would walk all the way up, I would carry her all the way down.
She would go for a bit and then say, “Momma, I just want you to carry me.”
We pretended to be baby ponies. I distracted her by having her tell me what ponies eat.  I told her I knew a story about a pony named Rocket and I told her Grandpa’s story of Whitey & Mimi for the first time.  She loved it.  In this way, we got to the marker for 1 1/2 miles.  We had fallen pretty far behind the others, but they were waiting for us there.  She was excited to be caught up and went a bit further on her own.  Then she just stopped in the middle of the trail.
 
“You just go, Mommy,” she said, motioning me on with her hand.  This was different from the whining and fussing of before.
 
“I won’t leave you here all alone,” I said encouragingly. “Come on with me.”
 
She sighed and took 2 more steps and then stopped again.  “You just go, Mommy.”  That squeezed my heart, so I picked her up and tied her on my back with my baby carrier and carried her the rest of the 2 miles up the Mountain.  She fell asleep almost instantly, so I think she really had walked as far as she could go.
 
Just before the peak, there is a huge flight of stairs.  We had planned to eat lunch on the summit, but stopped at the base of the stairs instead.  Baby Dumpling was getting fussy and so were the other kids.  I broke out a package of chips to go with our sandwiches.  Nacho Cheese flavored tortilla chips are good for troop morale.
 
 Luckily, Cutie Pie was willing to climb up the stairs herself.  I’m not sure I could have carried her.  They were not as steep as the ones in this picture.  This is inside the Fire Tower. 
 
 
 Lucky for me, Cutie Pie was excited to get to the Princess Castle on top of the Mountain.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
When we got to the top, 5 children were miraculously recovered from fatigue and went scampering about like mountain goats, climbing all over the granite boulders.
 
 
I alternately prayed for their deliverance from death  and begged out loud for them to come down.  (I’m not exaggerating.)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   I think that maybe on some of the higher peaks, I’ll stop just short of the summit.
 
 I’m not sure the view is enough to compensate for the sharp pain of fear that goes crushing through me when I am up so high. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Even from the complete safety of the stone walled fire tower, I was only barely able to keep myself from dropping to my hands and knees when I looked out over the Black Hills from 7,242 feet above sea level.
 
I know I look all calm here, but it is only a facade.
 
 
 
 I didn’t know this, but chipmunks live at the top of mountains, and there were about 100 running around and climbing the boulders with my kids.
 
 
 
 
I started to feel better about the whole being higher than anything else I could see feeling and then Cherry Pie started balance beam walking along the cliff side edges of the boulders again.   I finally sat down with Baby Dumpling and leaned against a boulder and covered my eyes and told myself that if they all died, there was nothing I could do about it.
Picture Ben took while I was cowering on the ground .
I stayed there until Ben was done exploring and ready to take us all down again.
We switched things up on the way down.  Ben put the 3-year-old  in the baby pack, and I tied the 6-month-old onto me and down we went.  My trekking poles were great.  Besides helping me keep my balance down the mountain, I loaned them to various kids several times to motivate them to keep going.
 
By the end, all our feet hurt and we were all tired.   The 12-year-old is the only kid who never complained about being too tired or that his feet hurt.  The girls who were sure they couldn’t take another step were soon running about again as if they had done nothing all day.  The grownups to IB Profin and sat in our camp chairs like lumps.
 
For dinner I warmed up 2 cans of chili and we had Frito Pie.  Gotta love that propane stove. 

South Dakota, Camping Style, Part 4: Crazy Horse

2 Aug

Tuesday was the day we had planned our big hike up to the top of Harney Peak, but the 6-year-old came down with flu Monday afternoon, so we postponed the hike for Wednesday and instead we went to see Crazy Horse.  It was very hot, so I was glad we weren’t hiking.


The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain carving like Mt. Rushmore and was begun about the time Rushmore was being finished up.  (Actually, the artist who planned the sculpture for Rushmore –Gutzon Borglum–planned for the presidents to be carved down to their waists, but the government cut off funding and stopped the project in 1941.


Crazy Horse began because several Lakota Chiefs went to Korczak Ziolkowski and asked him to create a monument in their Sacred Black Hills.  After he began the project, the government offered several times to fund it, but Ziolkowski refused because he believed first that it should be a endeavor by people and second that the government would not finish the project.

“My lands are where my dead lie buried.”


Ben took this photo 2 years ago when he was in South Dakota for AT



 It is a much bigger carving than Mt. Rushmore, in fact, all of the Rushmore carving would fit in Crazy Horse’s head.


I was so inspired by the history behind the monument, and the video we watch of Korczak speaking about his work moved me to tears.  He said, ” “When the legends die, the dreams end; when the dreams end, there is no more greatness.”


Here is a good article about the mountain.




Beneath the mountain is also a museum of Native American artifacts.  We spent a good long time seeing everything.  Maybe too long, because when we finally returned to the car, we were all tired and hungry and cranky.  We had lunch (PB&J) and moved to our new campground.  This one was right by the highway, so we were disappointed at first, but then we discovered the beautiful shower house across the street.  Ah to be clean is so good!  

Also, despite being right next to the highway, we saw more wildlife here than anywhere else.  Squirrels kept scolding us from the trees and there were minnows in the little stream running by.  Yellow Jackets kept flying around our table and I became convinced that their nest was in the metal tubing.  Ben and a nice old park worker stuffed paper towels in the ends of the tubing and we had much fewer yellow jackets after that, although Cherry Pie did get stung. 

This guy quietly passed by our picnic table as we were eating lunch Wednesday.

After lunch, we took the kids swimming at Sylvan Lake which was much cleaner and prettier than Sheridan Lake.  It was also very much crowded and the water was cold! 

For dinner I warmed roast beef and browned bell peppers & onions and we had hot roast beef sandwiches and watermellon.  When the roast beef ran out, I toasted the remaining bread & cheese.  Another fast and tasty meal that everyone loved. 

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