Friday Evening Fun

My kids didn't have school yesterday and all day, they kept on saying, "When is Dad going to come home?" Mom is fine if Dad is not around but once he gets home, they all want him (with the exception of toothsome #3 who has been mine since he came out of the womb.)

So, while he was at work, we decided that when he got home, we would all get in the car and drive to Chadders in Provo. In-N-Out is coming to our area soon and we all know that we likely won't bother to drive to Provo to eat Chadders, since the reason we do that now is because we don't have an In-N-Out close by. (Sorry Chadders but thank you again for filling the In-N-Out void for the last few years.)

Anyway, the drive down was fun, eating there was fun and then we headed over to the BYU Bowling lanes for a night of bowling. For some reason, we all love bowling and we all love doing it together. None of us are very good but it doesn't seem to matter. (I always try to break 100 and usually do but with the amount of bowling we have done for the last few years, I should be MUCH better.) We typed in our fake names (last night, I was "Spare" and Dentist husband was "Strike") and we go at it.

In general, Dentist husband and I are pretty serious adults (even though my husband is absolutely hilarious) but last night, we spent the whole night teasing each other like we were 14 year olds. We both hate people touching our face and after every bowl, with our very dirty hands, we would try and rub them on each other's face while the other was being distracted by our four kids. We got them in on the act and by the end of the night, in the BYU bowling ally, I was on his back, rubbing my black hands all of his face with the kids cheering me on. We honestly spent from about 4:00-9:00 pm laughing together as a family.

It was a delightful evening.

November's Book on Book Blogging Babes: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

If you didn't like "The Woman in White", every review I read said this is very different and is in the "detective mystery" genre. Feel free to join me in reading this book this month.

10th Annual Pumpkin Carving/Wassail Party

We had our annual Pumpkin Carving/Wassail Party again this year. This is our 10th year of doing this and it is my favorite family party.

My sister-in-law brought these "mini-carmel apples". I think she said she got this idea from Family Fun.

Toothsome #2 made these hilarious signs that she posted all over the house.

Let the carving begin . . .

Some of the finished pumpkins

One of the prizes this year were these hilarious fake mustaches. They weren't really that hilarious until we all started wearing them and taking pictures. None of us could stop laughing.

The five categories for prizes this year were:

Best Overall

Nice Try, Failed Attempt

Pumpkin Smasher's Choice

Coolest Concept

Safe Bet

We all agreed we need to add one more category next year and that will be "Best Presentation." At the end of the night, after we all sung "Ghost of John" in a round, we all take turns explaining our pumpkin designs. This year, people even wore costumes to explain their pumpkins, used fake accents, etc. It was absolutely wonderful.

Halloween 2009

Hermione, Snow White, Skeleton and Cockroach,

all wish you a Happy Halloween

Don't Dwell, Do

I have never been one to dwell on feelings. It doesn't do a lot of good and in my short 36 years, I've learned the best way to go about life is just get up and "do."

I've always tired of people who talk about "feeling inadequate" Again, don't feel "inadequate" just go about your life, working hard and you don't have time to feel inadequate.

That said, personally for me, the last month has been a hard one. From managing my four crazy kids, one of them being a very strong-willed three year old who fights with me on everything (like a lot of three year olds I know, so I know there are many mothers dealing with hard toddlers), to trying to be a caring, consistent wife, to full-filling assignments asked of me from family, friends, church and school, I have dropped the ball on many things this month. Dinner has been made in my house, I think 10 times this month, my house is always messy, a job that should take 10 minutes seems to drag out for hours because of constant interruptions from phone, family and friends. At one point this week, I discovered I had cross-scheduled five different things--parent-teacher conference during piano, volunteering at the Book Fair (the one volunteer thing I do at the school because my husband can be home with my kids and I don't have to leave them with babysitters) at the same time as my kid's golf lessons, a piano tuner coming when my kids were doing their Halloween programs, etc. And, just an FYI, my kids are only allowed one musical activity (piano) and one sport (golf/dance). My kids are not scheduled for every whim or activity on the planet. I have been very methodical about this.

At the end of the day, in trying to figure out why things are the way they currently are, I had that crushing feeling of "you are inadequate." It was overwhelming and sat on me like a load of bricks. I am not "that person" and truth be known, it scared me. I honestly, stood up out of my chair to try and physically remove the emotional feeling. (It didn't work.)

Why am I posting this? Because I often am the first person to tell people to "suck it up" and my basic message to the world is just that, "Don't dwell, do." Well, for the record, I get it now. I get how easy it is to dwell and replay over and over in one's head thoughtless things said, get offended and carry that around. I now get how easy it is to not fight back the feelings of inadequacy and let them come tumbling around you.

That said, last night, as I was wiping away my 5th round of tears in 48 hours and I am not a crier, (honestly, ask my husband), I decided to fight back. Lists are in place, a plan is in action and I am getting back my "warrior" feeling. Time to "not dwell and just do." Time to get to work.

BBB Book Review

My review of Infidel is posted on the Book Blogging Babes site.

Memories Tuesday

When I was 21, I was a missionary for my church in downtown Salt Lake City on Temple Square. I spent my days giving tours in English and Spanish.

On Sunday mornings, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir does a live broadcast from The Tabernacle. A few minutes before the broadcast would end, we sister missionaries would stand outside the Tabernacle with our signs letting visitors know that they could get a tour in their own language. I loved standing there with my fellow missionaries waiting for the tours to begin. It was always so exciting and fun knowing we would all be sharing our beliefs to people in many different languages.