Chatter

I'm devoting this entire blog post to one very special present. A present I love and adore and will hopefully have with me all my days. But first let me give you some background.

Stephanie, my sister, is wonderfully crafty and pretty much a creative genius. She's also AMAZING at making something where nothing existed before. And this year for Christmas she decided to make presents for all of her nieces and nephews. Some of these wonderful presents included books, a snake, a whale, a kitten, a tutu, a pig, a giraffe (an army giraffe no less) and a rag doll. Do you see what I mean? She made all of these from scratch, she was being simply amazing. For one of my nieces Steph decided to make a monkey. Now I would like to clarify that I loved ALL of her presents! She did an amazing job on all of them and I wanted one of everything for me after I saw how it looked. All of them were some adorable and beautiful, but man, I LOVED this Monkey. (I loved it so much I just capitalized it, and I hardly ever do that....) The Monkey was intended for Kassel and there was a slight delay from when it was finished to when it was shipped out and for that time I kept it in my room. I loved this monkey!! A lot! When at last I finally had to let it go I did so grudgingly, not at all acting my age.

Well, unbeknownst to me Steph began secretly making me a monkey all my very own for Christmas! She worked morning when I was sleeping (because she got up astronomically earlier than I did most, well all, mornings. It's amazing what having kids does to your sleeping in abilities...anways....) and I never had a clue.

Unfortunately I did spoil the surprise early (and I do mean early) Christmas morning. I had gone to bed after stuffing the stockings and Steph thought it would be safe to go ahead and finish up the last touches before putting it cutely stuffed right at the top of my stocking. I however was feeling very sick and couldn't fall asleep so, hearing that Steph was still awake, I went out to the living room to chat with her and moan about my general upset stomach. I saw the Monkey then, and I was so happy! I let her finish it and put it in my stocking when I finally fell asleep, but when I woke up and happily rummaged through the rest of my stocking I had her safely in my hand and she hasn't left it very long since then.

She is SO adorable! She's beautiful and I love her!! Later Christmas morning I was staring at her and contemplating what exactly I wanted to call her, when it just hit me. Chatter. Chatter the Monkey. Chatter and I are now best friends. I love her!!

So I would like to post a special thank you to Steph, my gifts to you pale in comparison to this handmade work of art and superb craftmanship. I love you and I love my Monkey!

This is Chatter. Isn't she wonderful?! She's telling me a secret :-D A secret I'm obviously enjoying. (You'll have to excuse my appearance of general dishevel...it was Christmas....you're allowed to look not put together)

A Splendid Tea Party!

Notice: Anything in this post that is in " "s is a direct quote from Emmuska's mouth. Really that girl does crack me up!

So, yesterday was my niece, Emmuska's 5th birthday. Among other things one of the presents she recieved was a tea set- and not just a doll tea set ladies and gents, no sir. It was a little girl tea set! Perfectly big enough to throw a real tea party! Naturally Emmuska wanted to throw a tea party that very night but Samuel kept getting in the way and the tea party did not go over very well.  Emmuska was very disappointed and Steph promised her that when Sam went down for his nap tomorrow (today in real terms) we would throw another one.

Today came and down for his nap Samuel went, taking Stephanie with him (he sleeps longer and better with someone next to him...don't we all? ...well, providing that that 'someone' doesn't toss and turn a whole lot) so after I finished up with some odds and ends we got the tea (hot chocolate) water boiling and we set up for a lovely tea party for 4 people. (The Hostess, Emmuska, and the Guests, Me, Liberty, and Dora)

Everything was set and everything went off swimmingly. It was "a simply splendid tea party!" Everything was "delectably delicious" and our gracious hostess was very good about keeping our cups filled and offering us "another spot of tea". She also gave us some tips in etiquette by letting us know that "pinkies out was SO elegant" and assuring us that we "never have to worry about anything if pinkies are out"

In the end she was very happy that "Little Samuel hadn't sat in the chocolate AGAIN" and she decided "that tea parties go off much better without little brothers" And as an added bonus "the Lions never showed up! I was so afraid that they would!"

It was, to quote Emmuska, a splendid tea party and she and I have plans for many more in the coming days!

Discussing important matters such as doll clothes, the importance of keeping "Little Buddy" asleep, and if we thought the chocolate should be "a spot more chocolatey" at our tea party

My beautiful tea

Liberty and Dora at our tea party

Liberty politely asking 'Miss' as Emmuska was known for 20 minutes, for a refill on her tea and on Dora's tea (for some unknown reason Dora didn't seem to have "much of an appetite")

Miss Emmuska pouring a refill. She was actually quite graceful and good at it

Our hostess and graciousness itself, Miss Emmuska.

Raking Leaves

So I decided that I have just given up on the idea of even TRYING to catch up on all that has happened in the last while. So many things have happened and it would be a lot of effort. Instead I have promised myself that I will stay updated (because really that is just SO much easier!) from this moment on. (I'm thinking that this promise to myself might last at least slightly longer than my New Years Resolutions do.....and that I think will still be an accomplishment :-D)

For any of you who don't know (...I don't know who you'd be because I know everyone who read this blog and I know you all know...) I'm in Missouri now! I moved to Dixon, MO about 2 1/2 weeks ago and I'm currently living with (read 'mooching off of' :-P) Steph and Mycal. Somewhat to my surprise I absolutely love this area! It  is simply gorgeous where I am and I love the drive out to get anywhere (at least when I'm not the one driving and I don't have to concentrate on making sure we don't die on the turns and curves....) Missouri is a beautiful, beautiful state. Different from the picture I had in my head.

Anyways, on to the actual post! When I was younger I was a strictly indoors type of gal. Thom, Pam and I had a system worked out- I do the indoor cleaning and they take care of weeding, shoveling, mowing, raking leaves, etc...anything outdoors (of course I was the only one who KEPT my side of the bargain but that's a different story... :-P) But then Thom went on a mission. Still the bargain held. I took care of inside, Pam of the outside. And then Pam went on a mission. I was stuck, I wanted to help mom in any way I could so I eventually gathered up all my courage and went outside to shovel the driveway. While it wasn't as bad as I remembered I didn't particularly enjoy myself. It was something to get done and that was it.

Then spring came and I gathered up more courage and I mowed the lawn. And I LIKED it! Wait! No, this was not to happen! I'm an indoors girl! I can't become an indoor/outdoor girl! Or could I? I could, and I totally did! (Of course part of this like could be attributed to the fact that I always listen to music when I mow lawns and rake leaves....not when I shovel driveways. I'm not sure why this is, but it is.)

So it is Fall here in Dixon, MO and as typical of fall anywhere there were leaves out in the front yard. Wanting to get out and get a little sun and still be useful I volunteered to rake the front yard. I plugged in my tunes, found a rake, wished I could find a pair of gloves, gave up on the gloves, and started raking. Quickly I remembered that leaves are very devious and deceptive. I swear there are not that many on the ground and then you start raking and there are a ton!! I always kind of wonder where they come from....

Anyhoo, it started out with me, and them Emmuska came out to help, followed by Liberty and we even got a quick cameo from Sam! Of course once kids came on the scene the faithful Auntie got the camera on the scene! So lets the pictures commence! :-D

Emmuska was actually a much bigger help than I thought she was going to be. (See that car in the background? I officially hate that car....)

Here she is raking herself into a ditch...literally

Because the best thing to do when you have a huge (or even medium sized) pile of leaves is to jump in them!

And then Liberty came out to help! She would take little handfuls of leaves, pick out the pretty ones to save for later, put them in her bag and then when her bag was full she took it to the ditch

Haha, I love how Steph's kids react when a camera is brought out. Little sighs and then charming me with their camera smiles. Already they're prepared for the paparazzi :-D

I LOVE this picture! I think it could totally be a senior picture....you know, if she was a senior...

Apparently leaves make pretty good sets for photo ops. I'll keep this in mind to myself for future reference

Finally all the leaves were raked up and Auntie Bonnie would let them jump in them (I'll admit it, I was kind of a slave driver until they were finished though....)

Liberty was SO funny! She was going to jump in and then she changed her mind at the last second and decided to carefully walk in

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our finished product! Doesn't it look so perty?!

A random shot of my lovely dog, she was so happy for the chance to be outside. Of course the lack of outside opportunities has been entirely her fault. She's afraid to leave my side and sticks to me like glue- as I'm primarily an indoor creature, she is now too. It's kind of funny, and sad, and a little touching

And here! Here is the amazing thing out Dixon. No bagging leaves for these folks! Nope they just rake them into ditches that are located right along the streets in their front yard. And then, to get rid of the leaves, they just burn them. I LOVE IT! I love the smell of it and it was SO convenient! There was a small portion of my heart that missed putting them into our green monster and jumping on them to get them down enough for more layers but really that's only fun when you have Thom there to encourage you and help you jump...and push you over...and do more Thom-esque things. Nevertheless, this ditch thing? AWESOME!

The Long Awaited (at least by my typing hands) Return!

Quite honestly I cannot even begin to describe all that has happened in the last month and a half. Suffice it to say SO SO MUCH!

In the time since I've written I've had a fabulous Labor Day, quit my job in Washington, had a STELLAR weekend in Seattle with my sister Dieuwke and her kids, had a FANTABULOUS birthday party thrown for me by again, my sister Dieuwke and her kids (and Lance...Lance makes such good Salmon, it makes my heart happy)

I've driven from Leavenworth to Colfax (where I donated my hair so now it's short) Colfax to Rexburg (where I attended a day of classes at BYU-I and toured the campus) and Rexburg to Ogden where I currently am (although not for long!)

While in Ogden I've cleaned, visited, read, etc...but the big thing that happened is Dad's 50th birthday bash! Every kid minus Pam and Thom on their missions was there! It was a huge deal and I know it meant alot to dad- he even kept talking about it after everyone was gone (that's mostly how I know :-P )

And now tomorrow I am packing back up into the car and heading out to Missouri where I am going to begin the next adventure of my life! What will I be doing? Well besides have a crap ton of fun I'm not exactly sure!

You know the really sad thing right now though? I have SO many awesome pictures documenting the last month and a half which are all securely loaded onto my laptop, which is securely packed into my car. Ah well, guess that'll just have to heighten the suspense for you! Now you can actually look forward to my next blog post!

So, until I get driven, unpacked and settled, I'll see ya!

Curly vs. Straight

Both worthy hair styles it's true. One is curly, bouncy, all around enjoyable. One is flat, straight, easier to sway from side to side.

Living with Dieuwke and her super impressive lions mane I have given the matter of curly hair quite a bit of thought. I mean there are some definite pros to having curly hair. I mean, she NEVER has a ponytail line- no matter how long she has her hair in a ponytail- me on the other hand, 15 minutes in a ponytail and I have a line until I get it wet again. And if her hair is down and you mess it up and try to give it a "Frankenstein Pat" (thank you Thom) she merely needs to shake it out and you can't even tell again.

Now my hair, my hair is straight. And don't get me wrong- I absolutely LOVE my hair but I also definitely need to put some amount of effort into it each day. Whether it's throwing it up into a ponytail or brushing it out and putting it into some fancier it needs attention everyday and it needs periodic check-ups through out the day. Plus my hair, well it doesn't really get curly. I mean if I have a certain kind of curling iron and someone to help me then I get it curly and it'll even stay that way with a substantial amount of hairspray but not for longer than a day. No my hair is straight and that's ok with me- but a few days ago Dieuwke and I realized that Dieuwke's curly hair could have a two or three day hiatus from being curly. Just to see what it would be like.

You see I have this beautiful straightener (to make my naturally straight hair even straighter you see :-D) and one beautiful Sunday afternoon about a week ago Dieuwke and I realized that we had a few hours to spare (because with Dieuwke's hair you need a couple hours...) and I REALLY wanted to see what her hair would look like. So, we popped in a movie and let the straightening commence!

Before!

There is just SO much of it!

 

 

 

And After!!

And there is STILL so much of it! 

But what do you think?

We discovered that straightening out the curliness added a fair amount to the length of her hair

So- what do you think? It held until she got it wet again and it was kind of nice to see how it could be straight. I definitely don't think it'd be anything that she would do permanently (and let's be honest, I'd miss her lions mane if she ever did) but something that is fun to do for a change every now and then just to see what it's like!

(Ok, so re-reading this I see that the first couple of paragraphs are completely unnecessary and pointless, sorry... but I'm still going to leave them there...because I can! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!)

Lethal Luau

It all started one fine day when Dieuwke took me into a wonderful, magical, and slightly mystical world called "Hooked on Toys" Hooked on Toys has everything! And I do mean everything. Whilst we were meandering around the toys and weaving in and out of the aisles we happened to stumble upon an aisle that had countless murder mystery dinner games. Oh, I was in heaven! I've always been intrigued by that game- ever since we had a done a Book of Mormon murder mystery in YW/YM when I was 16- and in fact Pam and I almost threw one once titled, "Burrito's Bandito's" but we were unfortunately halted by the shocking lack of fake mustaches to be found in our home town of Ogden.

Anyways, Dieuwke and I solemnly swore (in our hearts at least) that we would one day throw a fabulous murder mystery (hereby shortened to MM because I'm really tired of typing out murder mystery) dinner. So in the beginning of August I set aside a certain amount of my paycheck and we went down into Wenatchee to check out all of the different available MM games.

There were quite a few that seemed like they would be absolutely hilarious! There was a winter one (which I unfortunately can't remember the name of) a western one (Honky Tonk Murder) one set in the 50's (Iced over the Grill) one with an Italian theme (Pasta, Passion, and Pistols) and then there were some made by a different company that had a little bit more, innuendo shall we say, than the others games did, but this company had some fabulous titles (including Grounds for Murder-set in a coffee shop by the by- Roman Ruins, and An Affair to Dismember) So after looking at all the titles and story lines and everything and taking a catalog of things we'd have to buy versus things we already had at home, and taking into account the fact that it was summer Dieuwke and I went with the MM game titled Lethal Luau.

We bought Lethal Luau on a Monday and we decided that we'd just throw all caution to the wind and host the party that very Saturday. (Saturday the 21st) So the week was a busy whirl of getting out invitations, planning out what we'd make, what we'd need to buy, how we'd decorate, etc....We did all of the major shopping on Friday afternoon and we tried to plan out exactly how Saturday would need to go.

Saturday dawned bright and early and so did Dieuwke and I, well, Dieuwke did. I only dawned bright and early if you consider 9 bright...and early.... One of the ladies that we had invited is severely allergic to cats and dogs so the day began with an EXTREMELY complete cleansing of the house. We dusted, vacuumed, washed, swept, mopped, and well, pretty much anything that is in the realm of cleaning? We did it. After that we began to decorate-- and here we shall let the pictures commence.

Please disregard the corn dog box in the corner-- we had to make the kids lunch but it had to be something unmessy :-D Anyhow, this was our lovely centerpiece!

Close up on a side decoration

In an effort to set the mood (and because we couldn't find a real parrot that big) we found a window covering. You're starting to feel it now aren't you?! Welcome to Hawaii!

By the way- Sarongs make the BEST cover ups while still being decorative! It rocked my socks off

Because nothing says Luau Party like the actual words "Luau Party"

Add in some snorkeling gear and we've really got a theme going!

Get some extra seashells and, well, you've got some extra seashells (I didn't want to say anything akin to "You've got some good decorations" again....)

So then Dieuwke and I had a brilliant idea! There was a dead body right? (Hence the whole title Murder Mystery...) and how would we know that there really WAS a dead body unless there was a tape outline of one?! So what did we do? We taped an outline of a dead body! *Many thanks to Jake for being our dead body dummy*

And our dead body came to be that way by drinking a poisoned drink- so of course we had to have an outline of the offending mug!

Ok, let me just give a little background before the next 10 pictures or so. During our cleaning spree one of the things that we cleaned off was Dieuwke's fridge. Well, without any pictures or papers or anything on it it looked horridly bare. So Dieuwke hit on the amazing idea of drawing on it with dry erase markers! (Definitely something I'd recommend to mothers with kids- it was something that kept kids enthralled and it was easy to clean off) What started out as just a silly idea to cover up some space soon became a master work of art!

Let's start with the basics, sun, coconut trees, and a beach

Add in some water life and of course some plants and coral (and our real clay fish-- the only fridge decoration that we left on the fridge) and we've really got something going

Then we put in a fallen coconut-- his name is Bob, Bob the Coconut

Suddenly we realized that it would just be so much more realistic if we had a volcano erupting on our fridge! Way off in the distance

And of course every beach on Hawaii is packed with beachers and towels and umbrellas, why should this be any different?

Say hello to our wonderful artist- adding in some birds and clouds as we read

Unfortunately we got carried away on one of the birds and then it looked like a mustache-- ah yes you say, the infamous Mustache Bird! (Not often found in the wild but fairly commonly see on household fridges)

Then we had just a little bit of empty space at the bottom

Our finished product! Isn't it beautiful?!?!

Then we set the table (doesn't it look so festive? I was kind of proud of that)

The living room! Or...the murder scene!

The dish washer! (I know, we covered that well didn't we?)

And our drink area! The little pamphlet wanted us to have Mai Tai's and beer available for our guests-- we decided to be really boring and just have fruit punch and Izze's- but we still tried to make it look awesome!

Ok, so let me give you some more background. The unfortunate dead soul was Chase Diamond- Ace Detective (Steph, Val- are you thinking what I'm thinking? You'd better be...) and Maui's chief womanizer. He was having a birthday party on his lovely Hawaiin property but danger (who was no stranger to Chase) was lying in wait for him and somebody poisoned his Mai Tai!! The guests to his party were the following people:

Leilani! (Dieuwke) A hawaiin dancer who has known Chase for a few years and occasionally entertained for him....privately...

Birdie Putt (Bonnie) a professional golfer who happened to be in Hawaii for a huge golfing tournament (She actually wasn't invited to the party- she was just the first responder on the scene who tried to give Chase CPR)

FORE!!! (Except, it's with a croquet mallet and not a putter, 'cause that's all we had...)

Joey Breakers (Tom) Known as Bo-Jo (Bodacious Joey) to his friends he's been Chase's best friend since college. He did all the dirty work for Chase (breaking in, planting bugs, finding evidence, etc...) but Chase always got all the glory

Les Baggs (Jared) a clumsy tourist who lost his bags and hired Chase Diamond to find them for him- to the tune of $500/day, was there something important in them perchance? And Nadia Seymour (Kimberly) a top model who had been dating Chase but wanted to get serious- and he wanted to stay light

Holly Day (Mary Lou) An eccentric millionaire who was sailing around Hawaii in her 70 foot yacht. Known for her boy toys despite her husband Howard's disapproval, she had only known Chase for a few days- or so it would seem

Chief Wiki-Wiki (Mike) Like a father to Chase he was also Leilani's employer and he worked for the Museum of Artifacts on Maui

And there they were- our 6 suspects and our 1 witness. What would they find? What would the night foretell for them?! One of them is a murderer *dun dun dun* but which one?!

Nadia and Les reading over their characters

Haha! Ok, so about 1/3 of the way into our evening Leilani got an unpleasant surprise! She had to perform a native Hawaiin dance for all of us! And not only that- she had to explain the symbolism behind all of her gestures and hand movements

It started out peaceful, and serene (I really wish all these pictures had come out better)

But quickly it turned to violence, anger, and accusations

And then she brought out the shotgun!!

I really really wish I had more to follow but the camera started giving out. Just know that after the shotgun was removed from the dance it came to a slow, peaceful ending. And by the by- total kudos to Dieuwke for doing her dance on the spot- she SO totally rocked it!

And Les was absolutely brilliant that night! He played his part of the bumbling tourist SO well! He had all of us in stitches

Discussing the murder, possible suspects and facts gathered

All in all the evening went of absolutely swimmingly! The food was delicious, the guests were hilarious, and when the final secret was uncovered and the murderer revealed some of us were surprised, some of us were victorious, and of course one of us was in jail! I'd love to tell you who it was but that'd totally ruin it if I ever throw this one again (and believe you me, I plan on doing this again)

There were of course a few hitches since this was the first time that Dieuwke and I had ever done this but all in all it went over much better than we'd hoped and our blunders were either overlooked or just laughed about with our company. That was the main reason that we had invited the Baileys and the Meyers- knowing they'd be ok if it wasn't absolutely perfect and that we'd all have a great time anyways.

After the party was over and the guests had left Dieuwke and I cleaned up the dinner, some of the decorations (although the fridge and the taped body stayed for a few days) and collapsed gratefully onto the couch. It was over, it was a success, and we were dead tired! Would we do it again though? Oh I would say yes! :-D