Not much to say

It's been a busy week. I don't remember anything really exciting. The weather is turning cool. Last week I got work done on my car that I'd been procrastinating, so that feels so much better now! I've still got a little to go, but I'm waiting for more money. I have a million things to do tomorrow. Life's pretty good. I got to talk to my bro and that was cool. I got a "note" from my sis that said she loved me and it made me cry 'cause it was so sweet that she thought of me! It's just all been pretty good. Stake conference last week was very good. 1) Go to the temple 2)Know how available Pornography is and it's a BAD deal!!! 2) Be physically and Spiritually prepared 4) Pray to help with missionary work 5) as the church grows, we change as necessary (talking about why they're telecasting every other year with an area authority rather than an in-person visit), and there is a correct and proper order in which the Priesthood is to be used (blessings should be given by the appropriate person - they're not any more special if it's done by the prophet as done by a father. And I know I'm forgetting stuff, but I was inspired. We had Elder Hinckley(Pres H's son!) speak.... he's as cute as his Daddy!
K!
Must run!
Love!

Winners photos

"Most Original" is our Irish guy. [What are these people thinking??? Fun costume, but c'mon, guys!!! Original??? Learn your definitions!! Maybe I don't think it's too orginal since the guy is Irish and I've seen him wearing the hat before...]



Aunt Jemima's one I can concur with the rest of the voting population! She won the Best Overall. I had to post her Normal pic just so you can get the real gist of how funny her costume really is! I look forward to every year just to see what Ruth will be!

Photos of "Dressed up" and then "Normal" photo of the Funniest Winner for our Work Costume Contest. It doesn't seem like the funniest, but when you see the guy in person you do get a good laugh out of it.

The Results! And more....

I know you're all just dieing to know if my costume won the contest or not..... so??
The Categories were:
Best Overall
Most Original
Funniest
Most Outrageous
Best Group

Any guesses which one I got?
If Dad's response of, "that was Weird" is any indication - Yup.... Most Outrageous! That's your related goof-ball for ya! Our best overall was my friend who was Aunt Jemima. She's a blonde, blue-eyed gal. But her get-up was Perfect!
(For some reason I can't post photos here... I'll do another post and show you their costumes....)

The others I wasn't thoroughly impressed with - Our Irish guy put on his Tartan cap that has red hair attached to it with his knickers

and he got the Original and one of our techies was a nerd again - but this time his tight V-neck sweater and bald cap with hair fringe won it for him for the Funniest.

I'm just the believer in being totally immersed into the season. Believe me - you have a lot of fun when you do!!!
K - off my soap box now.

This weekend was pretty good. St and I went out to dinner Friday and were too tired to go see a show. Saturday we enjoyed cleaning as a family - Charlie mowed the lawn (and is laughing at little brother not being able to start the mower in one yank....one year is a HUGE difference in muscle development in boys!!!!), J vacuumed the garage, I cleaned up my sewing mess off the kitchen table produced the carpet again in my closet, St cleaned the attic out and found that his sweat shirts now fit the boys. Crazy to think Ch will fit in his dad's clothes in the not-too-distant future! And St is willing to share his clothes too. It's cute! Charlie did inherit some of Dad's shoes now that they're the same size!!!! AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we treated the boys to see March of the Penguins at the $1 Theatre. Ch wasn't too impressed, but the rest of us enjoyed it. Da babies are SO cute!!!! They are really weird creatures, though! Shall I be one next Halloween??
Then Sunday was really really nice! Our Bish is not the most talkative guy - but he took 20 minutes during Testimony meeting, with good reason. He and his wife went on a resort vacation in the Cayman (sp?) Islands this last month, looking forward to a relaxing week. Yup, you guessed it! Got caught in the hurricanes! They moved the hotel guests into a "shelter" which was a school with the top half of which were only wooden shutters, were only allowed to take a small pack with them, and got "forgotten" one night - four days sleeping on cement floors, no showers and very poor restroom facilities with over 300 other people! They were one of the few that were prepared with a little food and water. He bore his testimony of being personally prepared to meet your Savior EVERY DAY!!! And then strongly reiterated the need to follow the Prophet's words of completing the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. He had everyone's rapt attention. The rest of the testimonies were very solid and uplifting. In Sunday School we discussed Faith and Prayer to improve Family Relationships. In YW's I finally have my new Beehive Presidency in and only 8 girls now that we've had a bunch of birthdays taking my older girls away. They are a great group of girls. We are going to be working on helping 2 of our less-active girls come to Class and Activities. I really hope and pray that we can be an influence for good on these girls! I do love them! We're getting ready for our Night of Excellence, too. Busy busy. Good good.
I love progression and seeing the pathway open up and get brighter as we move forward! It's very motivating!
I love my friends and family that help me accomplish that progress through their love and words of encouragement! (It was wonderful to talk to Mom and Dad yesterday and hear their enthusiasm and optimism!)

All in all, life is good!

Doing good brings happiness.

Don't have to do too much. I got the thought that I should tell my sister-in-law that I loved her. We're probably the least closest out of all the sibs - don't know her really really well - but I still care for her. So I just jotted off the e-mail saying "I love you". Yes, her response was that she really needed that. I even got brave and told her that I was sometimes jealous of her for the blessings that she has in her life - husband with a strong love for her and for his strength in the gospel, etc. I hope that she took that one okay. We all need to remember the blessings that we do have. I have kids - easily - she doesn't. I know I don't appreciate them the way she would since she's got that trial right now. And I said that I guess we all just think of what others have and that we really would choose to have our problems when we compare those to others' trials. Life's not easy - but we are so blessed and it is good. I do love her. It made me feel good to let her know that. I hope that we can be closer one day. I love my family. My sibs all chose wonderful spouses. WOW!!!!!!!!!! Lucky me!

(Can you believe I've written so much this week????)

List of Costumes I've Done

Listed from most recent and going backwards,(at least the ones I remember):

Me
Superheroes: Poison Ivy
70's TV Characters: Charlie's Angels
Disney Characters: Mary Poppins
Hospital: the Janitor
She-Devil
3 Blind Mice: The Butcher's Wife (I know it was the Farmer's wife! I just got confused!)
Bank Robber
Woman Pirate
Mummy
3 Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf

Kids:
Skeleton Face
Scarey Clown Face
Army Man
Wolf Man
Vampire
Darth Mall
Obey One Kanobe
Pirates
Mummies
3 Pigs

Me as a kid:
Princess
Gypsie
Dog
Indian
Witch
Cat Woman


Hmmm.... I know there's more, but I just can't remember! I'll have to look them up!

Happy rememories!

Halloween Ideas

K - it's late at night so the creative juices are leaking out and I'm here and I'll spill.... Take advantage while the thoughts are still free:

Group Ideas:
Characters from Commercials:
Chiquita Banana
Tony the Tiger
The Michilan Man
Mr. Clean
Where's the Beef lady
Dave (from Wendy's)
The Double Mint Twins
The Subways guy who lost all that weight
(Why am I thinking of all guy stuff?)
Any more ideas along this line?

Nursery Rhyme Characters:
Jack & Jill
Little Miss Muffet
Little Bo Beep
3 Blind Mice
The Cow Jumped Over the Moon
3 Men in a Tub
The Old Lady that Lived in a Shoe
Mrs Hubbard
Jack Sprat & wife


Greek/Roman Mythology:
Narcissus
Medusa
Zeus
Hercules
Cyclops
Aphrodite
Forget names: the guy holding up the world
Achilles
Cupid
etc.


The Munsters

Operas:
Faust
Phantom
Les Mis
"The Fat Lady"
Aida
The Mikado
HMS Pinafore
The Pirates of Penzance
The Magic Flute (Oooo! That could be some WAY cool costumes!)
Othello


Shakespeare:
Romeo & Juliet
Hamlet
(the 3 Witches from ????)
12th Night
(Eesh! The one with Puck in it?? It's late!!!)


A Zoo:
Decorate with Bars from the ceiling to the desks and have various animals and signs all over that say "Please do not feed the animals". You could have a zoo keeper and janitors (all of you know about that costume can laugh!!!), etc.


A Circus:
The Top Hat Announcer Guy
Trapeze Artists
Animals
Clowns

The Nightmare Before Christmas:
Sally
Jack
The Mayor
Zero
Santa
The Boogey Man
The 3 Brats

The Corpse Bride:
The Corpse Bride
Victor
Victoria
Her Parents
His Parents
The Worm
The Spider
The Skeletons

Scarey Storey Characters:
The Headless Horseman
Edgar Allan Poe Characters
all the other Gorey Icks out there


I'll come up with more later.

Pic's from Halloween

Yea! It's working today.... Here's some of the fam pic's. Gotta see if I can get the skeleton ones of Dad and Son together. What makes it even better is when you compare it with the photo from 11 years ago with Dad in the same costume holding that same son!!! I need to put together a Halloween photo book over the years since we have so much fun with it! I had a friend suggest the I create a portfolio just in case I ever do decide to switch careers and go in face painting porfessionally.

Alrighty - gotta scat!
CU!

Poison - HA ha, ha Haaaa!

Poison Ivy that is! For Halloween.
Odd reacations.... Overall it was greatly appreciated in a huge variety of ways.
"What are you?"
Guesses were: A tree, Mother Nature, A fairy? Only a small percentage got it right!
"You carry that off well...not too many people could do that costume."
"You look lovely in that."
"You look creepy."
"Your costume is shocking."
"I had a costume, but it didn't squeeze me like that."
"Can I take your picture?"
"You're scarey."



I love dressing up for Halloween! I love to see everyone's creativity exhibited! It's gotta be my favorite Holiday.... I never grew out of loving dress-ups. When else can you totally let your guard down without anyone totally freaking out - judgements are relaxed and it's all fun. Strangers talk to each other and appreciate each other. You get an excuse to eat all sorts of junk, and get little bits of just about everything! The season is changing and so many new fresh smells in the air.... There is nothing like fall! The crisp cool air, the warm scents of newly kindled fireplaces, the multi-colored leaves still hanging on with the last of their strength to the branches that bore them before being released to the world, the hussle and bussle and preparation for a long cool slumber. It's invigorating.

I got to paint faces this year, too. St was his Skeleton in the Tux. Charlie was a Dark Rider from Lord of the Rings, but he didn't wear his black covered face hood - he chose to have me paint his face as a skeleton and color hair-spray his hair. He got 3 opportunities to dress up: band concert, Halloween party at a friend's, and Halloween! Jarrod was a Dementor from Harry Potter and did wear his masked hood. I did get to paint his face once as a scarey clown with which he wore an afro wig. It was quite funny!! That was for our Young Women's dress-up scavenger activity that he tagged along with. So last night was great! We're always about 30-45 min late for our trunk or treat since I get off work too late. So I'd had enough face painting practice that Charlie's face only took 10 minutes and it was probably one of the best paint jobs yet this year. I enjoyed that. Our friend was watching me do it and said I missed my calling in life... Yes, that would be a job I'd really enjoy - to do stage make-up! I think I could do prety good. It's something I haven't really thought about - but I could add that to my dream careers list. Oh, yes - I got to paint our SuperGirl's face, too - in which she got compliments. It was just glittering liners of red, blue, and gold. Quite fun! Yes - I do enjoy painting faces!!!!

The boys trick or treated with friends and I for once did not worry about them - just that they treated all the other mini trick or treaters with respect and were nice to them. I tell them not too push...that's the thing that really gets my dander up with the running around! Kids' manners are shot to pieces with their greed. I've been known to chew a few kids out for doing that.

So now we're onto the recuperating side of Halloween and planning on what to do for next year. Hey! That would be another fun career! A Halloween Costume Planner! Call or write me for some ideas... Do you want an easy, throw-it-together deal? Do you want to be scarey, pretty, recognizable, completely disguised, elaborate, simple, matching with others? Hmm.... that would be fun!

I would love to see pic's of everyone else's Halloween photos and hear your tales of Haunting the Hoods! What are Halloween's like in your respective states?

I hope your Tricks were cool and your Treats were tastey!
Until Next Year....

Happy Boos!