Things that make me sad: really being done with my color guard career. No big deal, only started 12 years ago.

Things that make me happy: having spent 6 of those years doing guard at a collegiate level of awesomeness.

Happy Veterans Day!

In Elementary school I always had the image of a veteran being someone my grandparents age (or older). Not so much anymore. There is a guy in the BYU marching band now who is 37 years old. He started college -and band- about 3 years ago. Prior to that, he had been serving in the Marines as a Helicopter Crew Chief. He's also married and has 3 or 4 kids (maybe it's 3 1/2 still... not quite sure.) We've heard stories from him the last few years and seen how proud he is of the Marines specifically and the armed forces in general. As yesterday was the "birthday" of the Marines, he came to rehearsal in full dress Blues. I was just on facebook and saw he had posted this for Veterans Day:

"Today is about honoring those who have served for this great nation. Make sure you take the time to thank the Veterans you know (or don't know for that matter). And for those of you out there who like to protest about war and occupy for the sake of disagreements with your government, you might want to thank them too. If it weren't for the Veterans of the Armed Forces, you wouldn't have the right to protest and act the way you do! Happy Veterans Day to all those out there who have served this nation!"




Since we'll be honoring the veterans during halftime tomorrow evening at the BYU football game, he'll be marching the show in his uniform. Look for him (he's the extra proud looking trumpet in blue) and thank him if you get a chance. He has done a lot in his time in the Marines.

A few Fall Decorations!

Sophie and I made some
"Fall-ing" leaves to hang
in the kitchen doorway 

This is our "Thankful" Turkey. The feathers
have things we are thankful for on them.
Lots more on there already! 

Since Halloween has come and gone, so, too, have our fun Halloween decorations. We're trying to save $$ right now for a little trip we've been planning so our Fall decor has been more creative than expensive. I've included some pictures of our latest projects. I'm hoping for another late-night crafting date with Craig this week but that depends on my homework. Oh, well. Enjoy the pictures!

An in-progress table runner with a fall
'pumpkin tree' and a couple fat
baking pumpkins waiting to be eaten

Craig gets all the credit for this awesome
turkey. He used our Cricut software to do
this and I think it looks awesome. We used pop
dots for height and then put the vinyl on the
outside of the glass. I love it!

These are my "Thanks" candles. $3 candles,
gorgeous cranberry ribbon & Vinyl
letters. I like them a lot :) 

Wooden pumpkins, the
turkey fram & my candles

Notice I put these all the way at the bottom?
I am not starting Christmas early but they need to
be ready by Thanksgiving, right? These are our
countdown blocks. Craig & I picked out
silver swirly, red pershing and ice blue
snowflake papers. LOVE all of them!

Because I can say it

If you're a reader of my blog (not sure how some of you got here, but welcome) you likely know that I don't care for Relief Society in our current ward.** I don't care for the lessons, the frequent insensitivity to what is different and the assumptions that we are all the same. Oh, and I don't like visiting teaching, so, of course, getting numbers every month is my job. Joy. Church is long and hard with a very wiggly, tired baby-almost-toddler without some of the sillies we hear. For the record, I do not need Craig to validate me in order to be a fulfilled, well-balanced person and if I pursue things outside the home (continuing education, hobbies or whatnot) it is NOT because he isn't 'valuing' me enough. By the way, does the priesthood have lessons on "planning healthy meals," "home gardening," "caring for children" and "disease prevention?" (This is a real question...)

I loved my RS in the singles ward. Why? Almost everyone there was either in school or working. While we had many things in common, we weren't treated like we were all the same. The lessons focused on the importance of realizing and fulfilling ones divine potential. No two people will lead the same life and therefore, exercising agency and following the path that is right for YOU, not everyone else, was constantly the emphasis.

I obviously had another rough day at church. But guess what? It isn't about the programs, the imperfect people teaching or some of the off-the-wall/where-did-that-come-from comments. It is about remembering who we are, where we came from and knowing that we have a loving Father in Heaven who is very aware of each of us and has a specific plan in mind to help us learn and grow and reach our own divine potential. It is about knowing that our families can be together forever. It is about knowing that when we make stupid mistakes- big or small or somewhere in between- we can receive forgiveness. I guess for me it takes going to a frustrating lesson to remember that.

.....

**If you are planning on lecturing me about the 'joys of sisterhood' or just 'needing a testimony of VTing' etc. just don't. I've heard it before. Go ahead and assume you've already told me I have a bad attitude or whatever and just leave it alone.**

Food Stuffs and Budgeting

Sophie is napping (YES!), laundry is running and dishwasher is just about done. Finally, a morning of productivity that doesn't include all school work. Woo! I am also very happy to report that last evening, Craig and Sophie and I were very successful in our two-week-food-shopping-within-a-set-budget challenge. We were substantially below what I thought we would need to spend, actually. We were able to get two weeks worth of breakfast, lunch & dinner food for (including taxes) $86 and some cents. No, we're not eating ramen and cold cereal. Our menu looks something like this for the coming two weeks:

-Acorn squash soup in baking pumpkin bowls (Craig's recipe- I get the insides for making pumpkin treats:)
-Chicken spaghetti, fresh veggies & focaccia
-From scratch clam chowder (YUM!)
-Chicken tacos with rice & fresh veggies
-Tilapia, brown rice & fresh broiled asparagus
-Shrimp scampi with fresh veggies
-Chicken & vegetable noodle soup (homemade, of course) and bread sticks
-Fish tacos (grilled)
-Slow cooker Kalua pork & potatoes (This will be two meals, at least)
-Latkes & homemade chunky apple sauce
-BBQ grilled chicken and baked potatoes
-Non-breaded chicken parmesan with pasta & fresh veggies
-Crab cakes (yum, yum, yum!)

Lunches will be mostly dinner left-overs or sandwiches and we have lots of fruit, yogurt, gold fish for Sophie, cheese sticks, cereal, toaster waffles (sometimes you need something fast), eggs, milk, juice etc. for everything else.

Thank you, Walmart, for having fabulous prices and doing ad-matching. Does this mean I get to use the "extra" budgeted food funds to get more things for Thanksgiving? I think yes :)

Wednesday

Dear Sophie,

       Please nap so I can get the rest of this band audio edited and sent to the videographer. It would also be nice if you would STOP trying to eat the cat food. Us putting up barriers around it or only filling it right before feeding the cats is really not an invitation to try harder. Along that same line of thinking, the bench barricading the kitchen is not there to serve as a useful climbing toy- I have homework to do and that is to encourage you to stay where I can see you while I write about Chinese restaurants. You're extremely effective at completely wearing me out and leaving me with zero motivation to do any of my assignments, laundry or cook dinner. I haven't even had any catering events to blame! I'm sure this is just a phase and we love you lots and certainly don't want to encourage you to grow up faster than you already are {who gave you permission to be in 12mo clothing before even hitting 11mo, anyway?} but if you could move beyond the everything-must-go-in-my-mouth and I-can-walk-so-I-must-climb-everything phases, that would be great. Daddy might even get you some big girl toys if you did that. But not tonight. He won't be home until after bedtime- more nerdmongering to be done, I guess. Keep smiling and being a happy girl.

~a very tired mommy

The things we learn in English...

Most of the time have nothing to do with English.

I love my class. Somehow the topic of "text speak" came up a few class periods ago and the conversation that followed was really entertaining. One boy in our class spoke up and mentioned that his mom would text him "WTF" frequently after he had sent something to her like "I just did really well on my midterm!" He was confused and finally asked her one day if she even knew what that meant. She replied, "of, course! It means 'wow, that's fantastic!'" ((If you don't know what that actually means, don't look it up.)) I mentioned that to Craig and we now have some of our own versions of some popular, yet formerly unkind,  text lingo. My favorite? OMFG- "Oh my! Flying goats!!"

And with that, I'm off to make some Thai chicken potstickers with Craig :)