Cranberry Sauce Presentation

My sister Janene really loves how cranberry sauce looks just like the can - so do I. It's so classy!

Well, I had no idea the first installment of my day in pictures would be so riveting. Unfortunately, Part 2 won't be posted until Sunday evening or Monday. Sorry if you had hopes of finding out today how I passed my time between 1 pm and 5 pm last Thursday. I'm pretty sure you're all extremely disappointed ;-)

On Monday I will be starting my musical Advent Calendar, counting down my favorite Christmas songs - 25 in all. Sometimes my own brilliance amazes me.

My Day in Pictures, 20 Novemeber 2008, Part 1

Harlene issued a challenge (tag?) to do a day of our lives in pictures. I became a bit carried away and was writing way too much. The length of the post was getting out of control, so I'm breaking it up. I didn't want to leave out any details that might be uplifting to another woman, in the way that learning of an other's short comings and failings can sometimes be secretly gratifying or validating. I'm all about giving back to the community like that, so here's Part 1 of a day in my life.

I started out Thursday, November 20, by preparing a delicious nutritious breakfast for my children.

Hmmm, I should rephrase that and say I prepared a delicious nutritious breakfast for Sophie. Ella had already left for junior high, and Eva didn't like what was cookin' so she decided to have cheese and crackers, which she scrounged up herself. I've taught my kids to be resourceful that way ;-)

Then I helped Eva and Sophie get ready for school, although Eva needs little, if any help, so it was mostly Sophie who (whom? I never do get that right)I prodded along. Only a couple of minutes before the bus came (the bus stop is literally in front of our house), Eva reminded me that she needed lunch money. I had her run out to the car where my purse was (yes, I know it shouldn't have been out there over night) because I didn't have a bra on yet and there were kids waiting for the bus, but when I took out my wallet, I didn't have any checks left. I called Matt to ask him where the new checks were, but suddenly time was running out quickly, so I decided to find some cash for Eva since there was no time to make a cold lunch. I found a twenty, handed it to Eva and sent her on her way, but Sophie still needed her shoes on and to brush her teeth. So, even though getting Eva and Sophie to school couldn't be any more easy or convenient, Sophie missed the bus and I had to take her myself. I meant to take a picture of the bus and the school, but forgot - so this pictorial is quickly turning into an extremely boring and longish essay about my inabailty to gets my kids on the school bus that picks them up mere yards from our door.

After dropping off Sophie, I'm not gonna lie, I stopped at 7-11 to get a diet (I had my bra on by that time).

When I came home from doing all that, I was going to clean up this mess before going visiting teaching because Emilie Carpenter was coming over right after that to help me finish the apron I started at Fabulous Friday in October (hemming the straps was the extent of what I accomplished there in 3 hours), and I was pretty sure she wouldn't like me anymore if she saw my kitchen and living room like this (I purposefully didn't snap a shot of the sink area).

But after sitting down to check the news and look at a couple blogs, I decided that she would indeed still like me if I didn't clean up, and kept right on blog stalking. I had to get ready and take a shower though, so after a few minutes, I had to stop and get myself together.

I met Nicole, my VT partner and nursery comrade, at Melany's for some visiting teaching. When we arrived, Melany was hard at work doing her weekly cleaning, which caused a pang of guilt to sweep over me because I don't have a weekly cleaning day. It happens on more of a needs, having visitors or sudden inspiration basis. We had a very nice visit though, and talked about simplifying our lives based, on L. Tom Perry's talk from General Conference. I had my camera in my pocket, but thought it would seem dorky to ask to take a picture in order to post it on my blog, even though they both have blogs and would have probably agreed wholeheartedly that it was an excellent idea to record my day in pictures, and opted to leave the camera in my pocket. So far this pictorial is sucking! But it'll get better in just a minute, I promise. But first, some more boring details

On my way home from VT, Matt called to tell me Marv and Joanie (my in-laws) would be coming to town Friday afternoon (the next day) and would be spending the night, so I determined at that moment that I would spend every extra moment, between the time Emilie left and the kids came home from school, cleaning and making everything in my house and life look perfect.

Emilie arrived only a few minutes after I got home. We immediately began talking about the Twilight girl's night out the next night, and Emilie did an awesome imitation of Bella whining. It was at that moment that I imprinted on her, but not in the creepy way Jacob imprints on Bella and Edward's vampire baby, but in a new Twilight BFF kind of way.

I didn't quite capture the exact right moment because my flash was taking forever, but this is Emilie laughing right after her brilliant performance.

After laughing about Twilight for a few minutes, Emilie showed me how to work my new sewing machine...

I'm inspired each time I see that Project Runway logo

...because I still haven't looked at the manual and have only sewn one thing since my 8th grade homemaking class, which was on my mother in-laws machine. She showed me how to wind a bobbin...

...and she also showed me how to thread it and all that. We worked on the apron for about an hour. I have to say that my work was pretty impressive! We weren't able to finish, but Emilie helped me well on my way. She left a little before 1 pm I think.

Consider yourself imprinted upon if you read this far :)

Stay tunes for more in a few days...

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Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! We'll be at my sister Janene's in Roseville, and then on to Marv and Joanie's - she'd better have everything spic -span for us ;-)

Ciao for now peeps :)

Picture Tag and Proactive for Vampires

I've been tagged by Laura (thanks)! Here are the instructions.

1.Go to your pictures

2.Upload the fourth picture in the fourth file.

3.Post

4. Tag 4 friends.

This is the back of Matt's head (in the red ball cap) riding a cable car in San Francisco - August 2006

I'll tag Jen M, Harlene, Sariah and jenn g

Here are some more views of my hottie from the same file.

The Transamerica Building - we love a good trolley ride!!! And we especially love if we're lucky enough to get a trolley driver who trash talks all the tourists who don't know how to get on and off quickly. After the fantastic city views, that's the best part.

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I'm casting Ella in New Moon. After seeing her with her Proactive on tonight, I'm convinced she has what it takes to play a vampire in the Twilight series. Also, she's taking drama at her junior high school - but that may actually over qualify her, come to think of it. She's got the look down though.

By the way, Proactive really does work - and I'm not even being paid for this ad.

She's kind of got a little fang action going on too (braces are on the way shortly). Poor Eva kind of looks like her next unsuspecting victim :'(

Satisfaction!

I couldn't have asked for a better Twilight experience! It exceeded all my expectations, thanks to some of the best bad acting I've ever seen, too much vampire hair product, lots of Geisha-like white ashen faces against contrasting red lips, Emilie Carpenter sitting next to me with her dry sense of humor, and about 25 great Edward loving ladies. And then Chocolate afterwards! Thanks Sheri for putting it all together! It was SUPER!

And now for my keen observations

Edward - not who I would have chosen for the part. Didn't ever see his chiseled chest. Am I making that up? I swear his chest played a bigger part in the book. But it might be that in my mind I'm rolling all three books into one. His acting was awesomely bad! So bad, that it turned the corner of being annoying, and was instead surprisingly entertaining.

Bella - she was much better in the movie for me than in the book. In the movie, I didn't have to endure her incessant, self-deprecating whining. Self deprecation is sometimes endearing when done with just the right touch of humor, but unfortunately, Stephanie Meyers perfected the other kind of self-deprecation in the book with Bella's character - the cringe worthy/gets old really fast kind. The movie didn't take us into her mind thank goodness, so she wasn't so bad for me. In fact, in the middle of the show, I realized that she looks just like an old friend of mine, and so I liked her even more than I should have.

Some things that bugged

The blue color tones were overwhelming. I wanted to put the film to my PhotoShop and apply some red - except to the vampire lips. Those things needed some blue. This was probably to offset the bad make-up though, like in the Marylin Monroe movie 'Some Like It Hot'. They ended up doing that one in black&white because Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon looked kind of green with their heavy make-up on. Seems like this might have been the same kind of situation

I was pretty sure Edward was going to look like Waterford Crystal when he stepped out in the sunlight, but instead he just looked extremely sweaty. Maybe it was kind of blinged up perspiration, but nothing at all breathtaking.

There was no indication that Bella was intoxicated by Edward's breath. Again, maybe I'm making this up, but I could swear she was about to swoon each time she got a whiff, and overall, I would have to say her weak knees and heart palpitations were sorely lacking. In fact, the only scene that really showed much heat between Edward and Bella was very short lived. Seems like things were finally getting good, and then he thrust himself away from her and against the wall. I didn't get the feeling from the movie at all that she wanted nothing more than for Edward to kill her in a sublime vampire love embrace. I was expecting way more making out, but again, I think I've rolled all three books into one big kiss-fest - mingled with some werewolves and rogue vampires of course.

Oh my goodness! Why am I spending so much time on this??!!

Because I'm L-A-M-E lame, that's why!

But one more thing before I go. I think my favorite part was in the field, after he had revealed his blinged up with glitter perspiring face to her, when they laid down in the grass and gazed at each other. The camera was swirling around them from above, there was awesome accompanying emo music, fast cutaways (even different sized frames if I remember right), and it made me think that maybe I could be a film maker too, if that's all the talent it takes to make a movie that will rake in millions. Is there a film school here in Reno? Someone sign me up, cuz I want to get crackin' on New Moon! I promise to bring on the heat between Jacob and Bella, and then only a few minutes later, Edward and Bella. The scene in which the phone rings will be highly charged!!! You will not have to have read the books to know that she wants them both, needs them both desperately, the way she needs air - with every fiber of her mortal being. I will not disappoint ;-) *update, the official count by Sariah, the number of seats she saved, was 43!!!

Twilight Anticipation

Well, I'm about to spontaneously combust (just like Bella when Edward breathes on her and she runs her fingers over his ice cold perfectly chiseled vampire chest, and like when he nuzzles his mouth, with those oh so dangerous vampire teeth, in the hollow of her collar bone, resisting the urge to utterly devour her, or like when he takes her face into his frozen marble-like man hands and tells her urgently, that she is his destiny, his only thought, his only happiness, his only desire). I'm so excited to go see Twilight tonight with 15-20 rabid foaming at the mouth Edward Cullen lovers. It's gonna be awesome! It could actually be so awesome, that I just might imprint on everyone in the theater. I've heard already that it's super funny when it's not supposed to be. What more could an anti-EdwardBellateenagevampireangsthorrorromance girl ask for? And then we're going out to eat chocolate afterwards!!!!! This is like waiting for Christmas!

I've shamelessly stolen these buttons from justrandi over at Is It Just Me? But I've linked her, so I think we're all good. She does a thing every Friday on her blog called Friday Flair, and I laugh out loud at several of her buttons every week!

Awesome Fireside Idea and Amazing Race Training

This song came on in the car tonight, and it reminded me that Matt thinks it's an awesome idea for Gladys Knight to sing this at a church fireside - I have to agree! I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, and with every fiber of my being, that I would have a totally super spiritual experience if I could be there on the front pew if she ever did.

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Any of you Amazing Race fans who think you're going to beat Ella and me to win the million dollars, check this out! We're already in training. Be ye therefore warned...

Ella on the right

Ella will be doing all the daredevil stuff remember, so I guess it's actually just her in training at the moment (with our neighbor Brittany), but nevertheless - be ye therefore still warned...

From the Ultimate Rush website:

Combine sky diving, bungee jumping and hang-gliding. We hoist you along with one or two of your friends to the top of our 180 foot skycoaster where you pull the ripcord. You will experience a free fall and then fly thru the air at over 65 mph. Nothing you ever do will be more exciting or create a bigger adrenalin rush.

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And thanks to Alyson at New England Living for helping me watermark my horse pics! Thanks :) And you should check out her lovely photos, many of which are of cemeteries. Dang I love a good cemetery :D

South East Reno's Wild Horses - My Pictorial

No one would really know it by this blog, but I'm not really a horse lover - per se. I never dreamed of having a pony as a little girl. I never collected horse figurines or had horse posters on my bedroom walls. I even horrified Ella by laughing during the movie Flicka, when Tim McGraw (easy on the eyes and ears, but a terrible actor) was going to shoot Flicka, and his daughter, dramatically strewn across the horse says, "it's okay, you can shoot us." That just killed me and I had to laugh out loud. I felt pretty bad when Ella looked at me with tears streaming down her face.

So, I've never really taken an interest in horses, until we moved out to this part of town where wild horses roam the hills. They're fascinating to watch, in my opinion. They're graceful, playful, maternal, protective, violent, territorial, curious and friendly. Unfortunately, I'm the only one in the family who thinks so :D No one else shares my enthusiasm :(

I've watermarked these pictures. Mostly it makes me feel kind of important, but I also want to make some money if National Geographic tries to use them. In fact, I'm pretty sure National Geographic will be contacting me soon, providing me with hundreds of thousands of dollars in new equipment, and offering me a featured $pread in their magazine. I'm sure you will agree ;-)

The wild horses tie Reno's landscape together so well I think!

Near the Toll Brothers development

Downtown Reno in the background

Over looking the Donner Springs/Hidden Valley areas, and Sparks

Siesta time

Upon waking

A few of them need some Rogaine

Over looking the Damonte Ranch High School Mustangs football field

Above the Reynon and Bardis development, Peavine Mountain in the background

Seen better days

My grandmother always hated it when my bangs would hang in my eyes like that. This black one is a bad a** stallion, and he was staring me down. I've named him 'The Black Hand'. But don't worry, I was ready to jump in my car

Above Damonte Ranch High School

Munching on the native grasses

Mt. Rose in the background

I see you

In the wetlands

Separated at Birth?

Dr Greene is back on ER - just saw the commercial tonight.

Let the celebrity look-a-like comments begin anew.

Happy Birthday Ella

Today we focus on Ella and sing her praises...

...but I'll get to the praises later. First let's talk about me.

This particular birthday is freaking me out! Four years ago she turned ten, and that was alright. It was hard to believe, as it is every time you ponder the age of your children, though not too distressing with adulthood still a safe distance in the future. But NOW - now that she's fourteen, it means that in four more years she'll be eighteen, and it seems like she only just turned ten, but pretty soon she'll be off to college and on her own, and then maybe getting married and having babies - and that's just not right. Plus, on Saturday we were in the car and 'The Look of Love' by ABC came on, which was the song that was playing the first time a boy asked me to dance at the first church dance I went to right after I turned fourteen. That moment brought it home to me that Ella will be going to dances now, and that boys will be asking her to dance, which means she's practically engaged already, and that freaked me out a little more. Okay, enough of me, let's get on to Ella (with only a little bit more of me, as it pertains to something she hopes we will do together someday).

One of Ella's greatest dreams in life, is that she and I will go on the Amazing Race. Each week when we watch it, we discuss and decide who will do each challenge. We've already established the she will be doing the sky diving, the scaling of skyscrapers, the eating of über-spicy foreign foods, the hang-gliding, and anything to do with running. I will be doing the swimming, the wrestling of Cholitas (Bolivian women wrestlers), the counting of hundreds of steps leading up to a church or pickets in a fence, the memorization and recital of random locations or foreign language vocabulary, the gathering of exotic cooking ingredients in crowded open air markets, and the milking of camels. I'm pretty sure that, besides the million dollars, we're going to win lots of really awesome Travelocity vacations, a couple of hybrid cars, and some sweet watercraft. Now she only needs to get over her fear of flying (a post about this fear and how it's all my fault may be coming someday - and yes, she does actually want to go sky diving. She just wishes she didn't have to fly to get up there).

Ella has a mind of her own. This is sometimes shocking, as I've worked tirelessly at imprinting my own opinions and tastes on her mind and I was always so sure she would never veer from them, but she always delights and surprises us with her uniqueness. The vegetarianism (fortunately, we talked her back into fish, eggs and chicken until she's on her own), environmental awareness, recycling crusade, leg warmer fondness, desire to spend the rest of her life in Arizona (she's never been), desire to have purple contact lenses (she doesn't even wear contacts), sudden love of zebra stripes, and running cross country and track (she previously didn't like to run) were all unexpected this year. And it was kind of a flashback to my childhood with my step-dad, when she started telling me I didn't need so many lights on. But she's being a good example to us in so many ways, and not just throwing out platitudes. She follows through with what she believes in.

One of the things I like most about Ella, is that she's nice to everyone and has a wide range of friends - boys and girls. She always has something funny to say, and we can't believe some of the things she comes up with. Sometimes I'm jealous I didn't think of some of her thoughts first.

Over the summer, she made me so happy begging me to swim with her every time we went to the lake. It's not hard to get me out in the water, but it was nice to know she still isn't above being seen with her old mother in a bathing suit. Next year might be different though - I hope not. She even wanted me to do the running rock with her, but alas, I was too chicken. But still, she wasn't above being seen with her mother jumping rocks at Lake Tahoe (we did all the others together).

Lately she's been working very hard in math, and has raised her grade from a C to an A. Math doesn't come naturally to her, so the extra effort is duly noted and praised here :) She also is very good at pacing herself on projects, so she doesn't have to cram toward the due date in order to finish on time. She didn't learn that from us, and most definitely not from me ;-)

She's sensitive, caring, loyal, and has a great desire to do what's right. She is a joy to have in our family, our lives our blessed by her presence, and we love her dearly. Happy birthday Ella!!!

I'll leave off with a few of her best looks this year:

Today in History...

...November 9, 1989, ended up being a significant day in my life - but I didn't know it would be it at the time. That night at about 11:30, my mom called to me from the living room to come and see something amazing on the television. The Berlin Wall had 'fallen', and people were celebrating on it!!!

It was an unbelievable sight to say the least. As a young girl growing up during the Cold War, I didn't think I'd live to make it through high school. I was certain we'd all die in a nuclear war. The fear of nuclear annihilation was acute at times, as was my fear and certainty of dying in an earthquake (that deserves its own post someday). Pretty much I didn't think I'd make it this long. But I digress.

The fall of The Berlin Wall was simply stunning!!! Six weeks later, I received a mission call to the Dresden German Democratic Republic Mission (East Germany), and was even more stunned!!! I was stunned².

It was a privilege and an honor to serve a mission among people who had been religiously oppressed for so long. It strengthened my love of God and testimony immensely! It was the best time of my life, and I am still blessed by the experience today.

I could go on and on and on, but that would take me forever. Here are a few historically fun pics though.

July 1990

The irony of this picture, is that I was breaking a mission rule by standing in West Berlin - West Berlin being part of the Hamburg Mission at that time. So, there we were, with all kinds of wonderful places to shop and visit, only a few minutes away, but we were restricted from going there because of mission boundaries. Everyone who'd lived under 40 years of communism thought that was pretty funny.

Of particular note in this picture is my Beutel. A Beutel is a bag, and everyone there had a shopping Beutel, or a few, because they didn't have any shopping bags in the stores (a plastic bag of any kind was a rare treasure). This Beutel was a pure 100% polyester pinko-commi Eastern Bloc Beutel, and I loved it! It went missing in one of my transfers, and I'm still not over it. I've got it loaded with pieces of The Wall in this picture, and it was pretty tiring getting back to our apartment, as I remember it. Also of particular note in this picture, is that I kind of look like a nun without the habit.

The Kiss of Death - not what it looks like. This kind of kiss was politically expedient for communist leaders. This particular politically expedient kiss was between Leonid Brezhnev (of super scary bushy eyebrow fame), leader of The Soviet Union, and Erich Honecker (of shoot to kill orders and denier of bananas fame), leader of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). This mural, based on an actual photo which was quite famous, was painted on a memorial section of The Wall called The East Side Gallery. It's entitled 'The Kiss of Death', and on the bottom it reads, "my God, help me survive this deadly love."

The little LDS Branch in East Berlin met here in the bottom floor of this apartment building in a part of town called Friedrichshain. The members were stalwarts who had remained faithful against all odds. They were amazing!

Laura standing at the entrance to the the Friedrichshain Branch.

In 1963, two years after The Wall went up, John F. Kennedy said, "ich bin ein Berliner."

In 1987, Ronald Reagan said, " Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

In July 1990, I said, "peace."

Das Ende