Thought this was funny how the economy can affect even the smallest trick-or-treater!

halloween tag

Love to be tagged? I do! I read this on Jaimee's blog about helping inspire costume ideas.

Visit The Occasional Genius for more instructions.

Here is my Halloween Hall of Fame:

2002--Ryanna was a duckie, and I was a Starbucks Barista. (it helped that I worked there to get the "costume")

2003--No recollection of this year at all, I wonder where my brain was.

2004--My Dad's birthday is Halloween, and every year since I was young we'd always trick-or-treat at his work. This year he was the devil. (Actually EVERY year he's the devil, he just dressed accordingly this year) Ryanna is a little ladybug.
Dawson was a 5 week-old-Orange-blob.

My sister, Aimee, was so awesome! She made this costume, it was half-kid and half-grown up. She went to a party and was a hit! Way to go, Aim!




2005---Ryanna was a USA Cheerleader, Dawson was a leopard and Ryan dressed as a Homicidal-Maniac. (because they look like "regular people") Maybe he was just dressed as a BSU fan.

2006--Do I blackout and sleep through Halloween? This is the second year that I have no pictures, no nothing!

2007-- Toy Story 2 Theme! >
I can't wait for this year, I'm so excited, I've had their costumes ready for months. Yes, I love Halloween and admitting it is the first step!

I wish that I had one of Ryan's favorite costumes: He was Superman and blew up arm-floaties and stuck them under his costume to make "muscles." He was so cute! I went as Snow White when I was in high school, wish I could snag THAT picture! Hey, if the dress fits!

loveable philanges

Today I'm thankful for beautiful, little, sometimes-very-dirty, hands! Carter's especially. He has learned how to wave so he shows off his talent anytime he can; and he's so proud of himself. I think of how someday those hands will turn into big, strong ones that can help provide for his own family. Ohhhh, I love those precious tiny hands!

(No, I still haven't cut his hair! I can't bring myself to doing it! A couple days ago, he was mistaken for a girl....again.)

interesting thought

I ran to WinCo last night to do some grocery shopping. It reminded me of a conversation that I had with a gal that I visit teach. We were chatting about how busy we moms are, working outside the home as well as inside. We were talking about how many times we'll touch that single bag of apples, or that single box of crackers. This is what we concluded:

1) Pick it off the shelf, throwing it into your cart

2) Take it from your cart, onto the belt

3) (then the cashier will touch it to ring it up)

4) Place it in the bag (if you're at WinCo)

5) Carry the bag inside

6) Take it out of the bag and place on shelf, or in fridge

7) Take it back out of the cupboard when you're ready to use it

I've even missed a couple times if it falls on the floor, or any time the kids have been "helpful" and you need to put item back away. You can touch a single box of crackers up to 10 times!!

Although I don't work outside the home, I still teach piano a few afternoons a week. We were also talking about how many times we bend over, pick up and wash any given item in a single 24-hour period.

Think about it, how many miles do we walk just inside the confines of our own walls? I know I personally take over 5000 steps just in my house, that's just short of a mile! I only have 1200 square feet of actual floorspace, so my hallway is traveled a lot.

Okay, so I think I got it! After all these years, I think I got it! My mom was trying to teach me about "touching things once" and I'm starting to realize why. I wish I could have been better about doing that for her sake, but now I'm instilling this genius idea in the heads of my husband and children. This, of course, isn't for their benefit, it's for mine!

secrets and a diary

I just want to say that I'm a fan! Madeleine Wickam (aka Sophie Kinsella) is an awesome British author, she's got such a fun personality. I listened to the book-on-CD all 6 hours in the car and anywhere else I could listen. Those of you that know me, I DO NOT read! I can't sit still long enough, so when I got into the audiobook, I was hooked. (is that cheating?) The only thing that might bother someone is the language, but it really didn't bother me.

I also finished Bridget Jones! I don't know what's gotten into me, the British humorist-bug has bitten me! I was rolling on the floor at times during these two books. It's a nice escape from the every day routine with laundry and dishes. Anything with Colin Firth is a definite vacation, anytime he reprises a roll that's named Mr. Darcy is sure to have me enthralled!

recipe for disaster

I accepted Christy's tag for sharing most embarassing moments, so here's a couple entertaining memories I have:

It was my sophomore year, I was in the CHS Marching Band and the wonderful Mr. Hartman was the director. We were dressed in our uniforms as we were going to perform during halftime during one of the football games. I grabbed my pair of white shoes, put on my hat, grabbed my flute and ran out the door and got into formation. I realized that my shoes were a little too big for my feet and as I was marching during the first song, one of my feet slipped right out of my shoe! It's hard to roll-step with only one shoe on. As I recall, one of the baritones tripped on it and ended up knocking him out of formation. If you were in band, you knew all about it.

I think it was the exact same night as a guy named Ryan forgot his hat and marched without it; naming him "Hatless Holdaway." (little did I know that it was my future husband!)

Ironically, there are several more that happened while in band. Why is that?

There are more embarassing moments under my belt like the usual passing gas infront of peers at school, sneezing so hard during class that snot comes out my nose, yelling a word out to my friends walking down the street not knowing the word I was saying was an obsenity, etc. You know the usual.

One of my absolute favorites was during my Psych 101 class at Ricks. There were four in my group, me, these other two girls and this absolutely adorable guy named Casey. We were training a baby chick and while Casey was holding the baby chick, it pooped on his hand.

While this otherwise wasn't very funny, I found it to be hilarious. I was leaning over Casey having a laughing fit! It threw me into the giggles so bad I couldn't catch my breath. I couldn't get a grip on my emotions, nor close my mouth to muffle the giggles. And then it happened!
I drooled like a baby all up his arm! Needless to say, the class stopped to see what was going on, and the spit-line was being shown off. I found it to be interesting that rather than asking me out, he asked out another girl in the group. I don't get it.

It's a good thing I don't embarass easily. I think.

lilac city weekend

I ran up to Spokane on Friday to spend the weekend with my friend, Cassie, from high school. I'm so glad that I got to see her! I had so much fun. It was very relaxing.

I went shopping

Savored yummy truffles

Ate loads of Mexican food

And watched fun movies


It was nice to get away for a couple days, but it was also nice to come home!

missionary moment

We live very close to a little Baptist church and for the last two years, the daughter of the minister (she is about 8 or 9 years) is constantly coming over and bringing us literature. On occasion, the minister himself will come over and we're always polite to him.
The daughter has rung our doorbell 5 or 6 times within the last week and keeps coming over. I open the door with a smile and we chat for a minute as she hands me one of her pamphlets. Not even thinking I said, "Hey! Next time you come over, I'll have something for you!" She nodded and left. I immediately called our awesome ward missionaries and requested a couple pass-along cards. They brought a handful over that night.
The next evening, our doorbell rang again. Standing there was the daughter once again, and as always, gave me her pamphlet. I said, "And I have something for you! Let's trade!" I handed her the card with the SLC temple on it. You would have thought I just gave her a $5 bill by her reaction.
She cupped it with both hands, her face lit up and she exclaimed, "It's so pretty!!" I explained that it was a beautiful building that we love. She giggled as she turned around and left. I closed the door and stood there completely bewildered.
Here I was, just trying to nicely get a couple polite Baptists, essentially "off my back" by providing them with some of our literature. However, something happened. My heart was touched and I was filled with the Spirit. That little girl's reaction is one I'll not forget as she saw this beautiful picture of a temple, somehow knowing it was an important building.
She even came back a few hours later, just to thank me again for the 'pretty picture' and this time, she didn't hand me anything.
Who knows, maybe a seed was planted. Maybe down the road, she may remember this little event, I certainly won't ever forget it.

ker-splat!

Splat! Right on the bathroom floor. It was done. The cell phone formerly known as Samsung is dead. I think it still turns on, but the screen doesn't light up, nothing shows up. (since it was completely detached) so I can't see the phone number I dial. I don't even know if I can get any calls on it anymore.

There are a couple pictures of Carter in there that I should have gotten off of it before now! (kicking myself very HARD) The worst part of all? NO texting! I think my best time is like 500 words per minute! (which is horrible, if you are into the texting thing, by the way)

Well, thanks to my Mom for letting me borrow it for the last couple years. It's had a good life.

poor dawson

Saturday morning I ran to get groceries at the store, Ryan was in the shower and Dawson got thirsty. He got a glass that was full of Crystal Light, drank it all and then missed the counter he was setting it down on.

It crashed to the floor, startling him, so he made a run for it--right through the broken glass. I guess that one piece actually stabbed him in the arch and he couldn't get it out. He limped to the bathroom where Ryan was and pulled out the glass. Bleeding on the floor and causing quite a scene (understandably enough) Ryanna started shouting for Ryan to help Dawson.

After it all, I got home from WinCo (I wasn't even gone that long!) and took care of my poor little dude. Ryan had already super-glued the cut back together to help the healing process along.

Dawson only limped for a few days and he has actually recovered pretty well. I'm just thankful that it was only one piece and even then, it wasn't as deep or as big as I originally thought!

Moral of the story: buy a drinking fountain.

cracker crumbs and pumpkin pie

Carter got awfully quiet yesterday morning, so I went to check on him I find the goldfish cracker box has gobbled his arm up! He's dumped fishies everywhere and trailed them from the kitchen to his bedroom. (it's only several feet, but that's like miles in "his" world!) I get out the vacuum and go to town.

5 minutes later....after getting the fishie cracker crumbs out of the carpet, I find him on the kitchen table eating MORE crackers! I guess he's trying to tell me he needs more wheat in his diet.

Ryan loves pumpkin pie, so he and Ryanna made one completely from scratch. I'm talking, picking the pumpkin from the patch (bin at the grocery store) gutting it, making the crust and cooking the pie etc etc etc.

Dawson just being super cute! He didn't want to get in on the gooey pumpkin action.

Ryanna HAD to sit on the table, because "kids aren't high enough" if they sit on chairs.

Mess that resulted. This is the CLEANEST part of the kitchen too!

(Actually, Ryan didn't make that big of a mess, I'm just poking fun at him.) Since we don't have a dishwasher and my kids eat all day long, we constantly have piles of dishes waiting me to wash them by hand. Can't wait for a dishwasher....someday....

Oh yeah, we're waiting for the pie to cool off so we can slice into it...it looks amazing!

funny card

I found this funny birthday card to send up to my Papa for his 81st birthday this weekend:





"Here in America, you have the freedomness to celebrationalize your birthday according to your own preferentiation. You be the decider! Happy uh...anniversary of your birth...whatchacallit!"

new baby, new luggage

I have a brand new neice! Congratulations to my brother-in-law and his wife! They had a little girl born yesterday and we're so excited for them. It's their first and they are going to be incedible parents. Inside family joke has named her "UGH," but she'll get a different name soon! Her pictures are just adorable, I wish I could be around to kiss those cheeks! Congratulations!



Another bit of fun info that I'm so excited about--I've been wanting my own suitcase to take over to China when we leave in 2 months, 3 weeks and 6 days! We can take over two cases per person, and we've borrowed a couple already, but I really wanted something mine. I saved up and bought this from Ross for $49.99. I loved it because it's polka dotted and totally cute. Plus I would need something that stands out amidst the black and dark colored luggage usually on the luggage claim merry-go-round. I've never been so excited to buy luggage in my life!

totally didn't see it coming

I am nineteen years old and a student in Rexburg, Idaho. I am attending Ricks College and in love with a boy in Boise, named Ryan. Ryan's very talented sister and brother-in-law have written and produced a very beautiful musical, and the final show is soon. Ryan heads down to Utah to see the show with his family. I had lots of homework to do, but I blew it off and found a couple rides down to Utah to see the production down at UVSC.

I arrived and stayed at my Aunt's home. A couple hours later, a surprise walks in the door! Ryan with MY FAMILY! I didn't know that they were coming, I was just planning meeting up with Ryan and his family the next day.

The next night was the final showing of Heidi, which was absolutely beautiful. There is a love song in the show, sung as a duet with Ryan's gorgeous sister, Jayme. As I had already been introduced and knew this song word-for-word, as Ryan and I picked it as "our song."

The cast bowed as we applauded and I do believe that they received a standing ovation. After the final curtain was lowered, the audience started leaving and the cast started taking the set down. Mingling with other people as I was waiting to leave, a song (ours!) starts playing. My mom grabs me and whisks me up on the stage, where the spotlight is shining on me. Everyone hushed and gasped as Ryan appears on the stage walking toward me.

For the next 20 seconds, he's talking to me, and I see his lips moving, but I don't hear anything. It was just like the movies, everything was in slow motion. He says something like, "I love you....I picked out this ring....Will you be my wife?...." and then gets on one knee!
I was so lightheaded as he put the ring on my finger, and I realized that most everyone from the audience had filtered back in and was witnessing this extra scene, not originally in the musical! I say "yes!" and Ryan hugs me and a roar of clapping, shouting and screaming erupts.

After everything calms down, I began putting the puzzle pieces together. No wonder, most of my family is here, from my uncles to aunts, to cousins. Lots of friends from Boise were there, a lot of Holdaway's friends were there also. I guess word had gotten out amidst the audience what was going to happen, no wonder there were people smiling at me during intermission that I didn't know. Aha!

In front of the entire audience, in this big theater and in front of 150 people, he proposed September 23, 2000. Six weeks after we started dating. And yet, I honestly didn't see it coming. No wonder he was acting so weird. Today, eight years ago, I got engaged!

party time

After church, naps and a few tears, Dawson got to open his presents for his birthday. He got some Transformers, Star Wars guys and an ice cream cake. It was a very low-key event!






Carter was happy just to talk on the phone, his latest hobby.





He opened his Transformers Potato Head (Optimash Prime--seriously, who comes up with this stuff?!)

It was a fun day for Dawson!