Random Happenings

There's been a lot of crazy things that have happened in the past 4 days.  And by crazy I mean things that are actually worth telling a story about.  Sometimes you just go weeks without having any worthy stories to tell!  Since I couldn't just choose one I decided to highlight all of them.

-I can finally cross getting a black eye off of my bucket list!  This may have happened several weeks ago but I haven't mentioned it yet.  The sad part was that nobody could even tell I had a black eye.  I'd get right up close to show them and then they'd say, "Ah yes I can kind of see it."  They probably just said that to get me out of their bubble.

-The boss woman came in last Friday with two very dead looking plants.  She asked me to save them for her because I'm the plant whisperer.  I had no idea I had such a reputation.  I also learned that I will pretty much do anything if called the master of it - excluding fridge cleaning and drain clearing.

-Saturday night found me babysitting of the nieces.  Whilst babysitting, one of these darling nieces decided it'd be funny to chuck a golf ball at my head when she was only a foot away.  There's still a bump on my forehead.  Maybe it's because I don't yet have kids but I thought it was hilarious.  Also, who has a golf ball in their play box?  I'm looking at you JD and McCall.

-Later that night I ended up in my house sewing,watching the last Harry Potter movie by myself.. and sobbing.  Sobbing for all those characters dying that I hold so dear to my heart.  Best part was texting my roommate, Lora and having her respond with, "Don't do it alone!" It's good to know someone understands my HP fanaticism.  Speaking of Lora, we occasionally have arguments about what constitutes a real dinner.  Yesterday she said, "You know garlic croutons just don't cut it for a dinner.  They actually made me nauseated."  Then she followed that up today by saying she was disappointed we weren't going to the movie until later since the popcorn from the movie theater was going to be her dinner.  The fact that she and her horrible eating habits are leaving me in 2 days is almost too much to bear.

-My makeup somehow slipped out of my hand this morning.  The result: makeup in my hair, all over my sweater, on my pants, and on the floor.  How does that happen?  Did I mention my sweater was white?  Then I got to work and found out that we were supposed to wear black today for the mock funeral party we are having for the retirement of a program.  Kind of uncanny that I ended up changing into a black sweater unknowingly, isn't it?

-The craziness of the morning continue when I got into work and saw out of the corner of my eye some sort of movement.  When I looked, there was a full fledged mouse scurrying off my desk and onto the floor.  A MOUSE!  On MY desk!  I was in shock. I mean what do you do when you see a mouse?  You can't smash it, and it's probably not the best idea to try and catch it.  I just ended up praying that it would run away, and what do you know it ran out of my room and into another office.  Take that coworkers!
There you have it.  I hope you enjoyed my hodge podge of stories.  You're welcome.

Blickenstaff's is the Place to Be

I've always been a fan of Blickenstaff's toy store.  Just take a look at this magical place.

Every time I go I seem to find some crazy new toy or game that I suddenly find absolutely necessary to have.  Naturally, I jump at any chance I get to go to this store.  A few weeks back I heard tell from my awesome SIL Makana that you can have FHE at Blickenstaff's and they'll let you play any game you want for free.  Free people!  Being the mother of 19 rowdy children (don't even ask me how I keep them all straight), I was thrilled to think of the prospects of introducing them all to the magicalness that is Blickenstaff's.  When it was time to gather for FHE, only two of children were present, effectively vaulting themselves to a two way tie for the honor of being my favorite child.  The rest of the 17 will be punished with coal in their stockings for such naughty behavior.  

I digress.  Despite the low turnout, we still had a blast.  We got a worker by the name of Travis to teach us how to play Tenzi, and SpotIt.  We also played with some random contraption that I didn't catch the name of.  Travis was a good sport and really made our experience wonderful.  I think he may have even had more fun than we did.  Yours truly was the champ of SpotIt (hopefully none there will find my blog and dispute that claim).  After playing these rousing games we retired to the outside of the store to check out the lights, listen to the amazing violinist playing, and say hi to our dear friend Santa. 

I may or may not have slipped a $50 bill to good old Santa while sitting on his lap, telling him to promise my favorite children whatever they wanted for Christmas.  

Thanks to Makana for the great idea and thank you Blickenstaff's for being so hospitable.  You can check them out on the web here or on there FB page here.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

The other day I was at institute and our teacher told us of a service opportunity for the people affected by Sandy.  One of my teacher's friends in Delaware was collecting homemade Christmas ornaments to give to families that she had known while growing up in New York.  Being an FHE mom in my ward I realized that I could use this as my activity and force all my children in my group to be serviceable.   Double bonus!

One of the girls in my group came up with the idea of making salt clay ornaments.  She brought all the ingredients and some fun Christmas cookie cutters (making my life so very simple).  After watching this beautiful video about the Mormon helping hands to get us in the helping mood, we turned on the Christmas music, and got to work.  This project spanned two nights as we were on a bit of a time crunch with most people having homework to get back to - the first night consisting of making, shape creating, and baking the dough, the second night being the decorating portion.  Personally I think this would be a great activity to do with little children as they were really easy and still an absolute blast to make.

Ingredients:

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 1/2 cups water

Christmas cookie cutters (unless you're a pro and can make shapes it by hand)

Directions:

1. Combine ingredients and knead dough for 15 to 20 minutes.

2. Roll dough out flat, and then use the cookie cutters to cut out the ornaments.

3.  Make a small hole for the string using a toothpick (we improvised with cocktail umbrellas because for some reason there were no toothpicks to be found in my house).

4. Bake at 300ºF for about 20-25 or until golden. (Being the scatterbrain I am, I accidentally left the dough in the oven for an extra 15 minutes.  We had a lot of people over for my roommate's birthday and they all started saying.. "Ugh what's that burning smell?"  Realization finally dawned after about five minutes that the smell was probably my ornaments and I ran to the stove to take them out.  I found that they actually looked fine, so apparently there's a lot of room for error in cook time).

5. Paint and decorate as desired.  Acrylic paints work best, and you can use a varnish to make them shiny.  

We didn't have very many people show up the second day for painting due to other responsibilities   Because of this, we weren't able to take as much time on each ornament as we would've liked.  It would've been fun to not only paint, but add other things to the ornaments like tulle or ribbons.  I still think they turned out great.  I mean have you ever seen a cuter snowman?  I submit that you have not.

The Usual I Presume?

I've always wanted to be a regular somewhere.  I think this fantasy comes from the times that I worked at a food establishment.  I'd look forward to the regulars coming in and breaking up the monotony of the day.  We seemed to share some sort of camaraderie as I'd ask them how things were going with their life. It was like we were holding real conversations!  Since then, I have really just wanted to be able to walk into some place, have the worker get a big grin on his or her face when they see me, and start preparing my order without even needing to be told.

Well today I'm proud to say that I became a regular.  Granted this didn't occur at a food establishment, but it was still just as magical.  For the past 6 months I've been going to the temple every Wednesday at the same time.  Although people have recognized me, for some reason the ladies who handed out the clothes never seemed to.  Today, I walked in, and the little old lady serving out those jumpsuits got a smile on her face in recognition.  Then to my surprise, she went and grabbed a jumpsuit without any prompting from me.  It was just as magical as I would have imagined it to be!  It was slightly disappointing to see that she had gotten my my size wrong, but you know, I'd rather be a regular and get the wrong thing, then not be a regular at all.

I can't go back, it's so cold!

There's been quite a bit of watching of the following video lately.  I'm convinced the main reason it's so hilarious to me is the people that I watch/quote it with every single day.  The cold comment also perfectly captures how I feel about going back to my house during the winter.  You may not find it funny, but over here I'm still laughing.

On another note I went to a friend's house to see if she wanted to get a kong cone and found myself, instead, sitting next to her eagerly watching pride and prejudice.  Thirty minutes later there were 4 girls on that tiny couch.  When it was over we may or may not have started it again.. but you can't get me to admit to anything! Alright fine, I have no shame.. Yes, we did start it again.  Unfortunately twenty minutes in I had to leave and go to bed.  Darn responsibility.

Good Old Elementary School Days

This past Monday I had the wonderful opportunity to play ultimate frisbee twice. Twice! In the morning I played because a friend invited me, and at night we played for Family Home Evening. Now I'm not one to complain about everyone being active, but I just have to ask, what's with this game? It really is all the rage here in Provo and I can’t figure out for the life of me why it is such a big thing.   Don't get me wrong, I think it is fun to play every once in awhile, but wouldn't go so far as to play it every chance that I get.  I can't help but wish that others wanted to play other sports. 

In elementary school we had it right.  Certain sports were all the rage for a little while and then we'd move on to the next one. Sidenote, I was the most popular person in second grade due to my skills in rock, paper, scissors. Literally no one could beat me, and don't even ask how that is possible in a game that is part luck. A change in game popularity saw me fall from the top of the totem pole in popularity to near last in mere days. All because my rock, paper, scissors skills were no longer needed ever again.  I blame my lack of friends in elementary school on that.

Anyway I digress. We would rotate from basketball, to kickball, soccer, to tag football, foursquare, to jungle gym playing. The only thing that was always in fashion were the swings.   And here we are with college students from all over the world and the only thing we all will play is ultimate. What's wrong with having options? Maybe I should start a club where we play a different sport every week. We could even sneak in a match of Quidditch or larping one evening.  I've included that definition of what LARP is for those who don't already know.

LARP:  a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters' actions

New Year's Eve Failure

Because of the fact that all of my friends in college seem to be out of state every New Year's Eve, I always end up just hanging out with the fam bam. Not that it's not fun to do that, but when one's a senior in college and has spent every New Years with their family, one begins to feel a bit like a loser. Especially since the year before I ended up going to bed at eleven.. somehow I still have my dignity intact. This year I was determined to go to a party and experience a real college New Years Eve. Luckily, I actually had some friends around who also happened to h ave mad connections. We set forth to Lindon where all the cool parties are (that's where the rich people live) and commenced to participate in all the fun and gaiety that is expected on such a night.

Three minutes before midnight I realized I had to use the restroom. Figuring I had time, I hurried to the bathroom. When I went to exit said bathroom I twisted the door handle... nothing. Not too alarmed I twisted again.. still nothing. The door handle wasn't budging at all. Repeatedly I twisted and tugged but to no avail. Full panic ensued as I realized it was close to count down, I didn't have my phone on me, and here I was stuck in a bathroom like some helpless tw0 year old. Frantically I kept pulling but I could hear the people outside counting down.. 3, 2, 1.. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I screamed in horror which brought me back to reality. I realized I'd just had a mini day dream and as luck would have it, it was still 2011. Being the problem solver I am I decided to try just pulling on the lock to escape from the bathroom prison. Instantly it came free and the door opened. I calmly pulled myself back together and joined my friends with a minute to spare. Crisis averted.