Thanksgiving Smiles

A long rambling list of things that made me smile this past week. There should be a prize if you make it to the end, because there are no pictures. Read only if you don't have to be anywhere in a hurry.

308. FHE - Operation Christmas Child and and School Board Meeting edition. Last Sunday we found out that the deadline for a shoebox was Monday. So, Monday after school we hurried to put together a box. What made me smile was watching my children scour the house. The kids had terrific ideas for things to go inside, like lengths of ribbon for hair bows. They used what we had and filled the box quickly. They felt so good, and kept saying, "I bet our little girl is going to LOVE this box." It's like I could see their hearts growing.
Afterward Sue and Lou came to a school board meeting with me. It was fun to see the girls trying to puzzle out what everyone was talking about.

309. Outlining. (This is the boring entry. You can skip ahead if you want.)

So - I signed up for Nanowrimo this year. With the book fair and other real life going on, I don't think I'll be winning. To get a little extra done in November anyway, I went to my new favorite meet-friends-and-write coffee shop. They weren't there this week. Something about a big holiday.
So - I sat alone and outlined. It went so quickly, it was like it outlined itself. The outline's not finished, but there is some direction. I was so happy to see a story arch beginning to take shape in this thing I've been working on for a year and a half! But then I realized. I'm only up to item four on what is so far a 12 part outline. I really need to up my productivity.

310. Stealth Puns.
Me, talking about something or other with Oldest. "Sometimes change is hard."
Oldest, "That's why coins are made out of metal."

311. Fun Dinner. A 22 pound turkey that is already gone but for soup. Awesome sweet potatoes with the BEST brown sugar topping ever. (And apparently more good stuff in the potatoes.) Green beans, mashed potatoes and rolls. And PIES. Lots of pies. Pumpkin cheesecake, Lemon, the first-ever attempt at an apple pie by one guest (great job!), pecan, and cherry. Yum. Sue did a great job carving a "Happy B-Day Mom" top into our cherry. There's nothing like Thanksgiving Birthday Pie. It didn't quite look like it was on fire. According to the candles I'm 26. I can rent a car, and my insurance rates are lower.

312. The world coming out to celebrate my birthday. It was so nice of everyone to celebrate wherever they were with a nice big dinner. The parade was a nice touch, too. Loved the phone calls!

313. Can you do this? The card game Pit in different voices. Opera. Or Whisper. My sister-in-law and I were laughing so hard we couldn't even play. Just try to whisper, "One!"

314. Cool Birthday presents. A manni-pedi gift certificate from Mr. C. Can't wait to use that! (Though I'm debating saving the pedi until sandal season.) And a VERY COOL T-shirt from the parents. Encouragement to write. It made me smile. My first official writing T-shirt!!

315. Black Friday Madness. Black Friday can be so fun. It's like a huge party. Mostly everyone is nice and points out where the good deals are or tells you about the other great sale, or the back of the store where you can check out faster. Only saw a couple of grumps. We have a new theory that all the grumpy shoppers stay home so they can avoid the crowds. Those that are left are so much fun! The only sad part is finding out later about the cool deal you missed!
Even Mr. C and his brother got out on Black Friday for their first early morning shopping expedition EVER. Of course, they went to Cabela's. So does that count as shopping, or hunting?

316. Catching the Ohio State Michigan Game - At the beginning! I started asking my family, "Do you KNOW what's on TV?" "Do you know WHAT'S on TV?" Of course they didn't. But once I had enlightened them and done my "Can you believe how cool this is?" dance they understood. And my kids came and watched most of the first quarter with me before they wandered off. Meanwhile Mr. C. nodded like it was great and went off to mow leaves and clean the garage. But I got to see things like a full field return touchdown 12 seconds after Michigan scored. It was beautiful. (Ohio did so well that I'll admit I wandered off myself some time in the 4th quarter. It was 37 to 7!)
The only down side of the day was that none of the little score updates at the bottom of my screen were telling me what was happening at the BYU - U of U game!

I know. I'm the only one who watches football in my house. Weird.

317. Compromise and Christmas Trees. A special thank you to Mr. C. for being the bigger person on our Christmas tree cutting expedition. We'll get his kind next year and vote on which worked best. But now, he was so sweet that I wish his tree was this year.

318. Another Missionary Farewell. Sniff. Brother Deshler's sweet remarks about these young men growing in stature with God and man. How they have grown so far and how they will. Beautiful.

319. Blessings and prayer. We know so many people with health problems, employment issues, etc. And today on the way to a meeting we saw a huge apartment fire. (Two families from our ward live there. We stopped and made sure their buildings weren't the ones affected just in case. We felt so bad for those out of their homes.)We are learning to pray for a long list of people. It has made my desire to serve increase. After all, those same problems could so easily be mine. It has made me hold my blessings up to the light with a little more tenderness. There is always something to be thankful for. And my life, with all the subterranean problems that try to mine away at it, is still full of beautiful blessings and smiles.

Are you tired yet? I am. That was long. Hopefully I'm a bit more caught up now. Just need to add in a few concerts.

Way to much time on You Tube

307. Multitrack accapella youTube videos.



The Today show tried their hand


At imitating This:



Love the Mike Tompkins videos. He does a great job!
(They are better on You Tube - the format cuts off a bit of the right side of the video here. Anyone know how to fix that?)

Good News!

306. Excellent Musicians. The Oldest tried out for Symphonic Band - the highest band at high school. She made 2nd chair. Not bad for a sophomore. She and another sophomore who was in symphonic band last year did better than a junior and a senior. (Only 4 tried out.) Congratulations, Honey!
(Miss Lou was ready for her to go challenge for 1st chair the next day.)

Taking Care of Essentials

305. A Six Year Old Boy's Priorities. Yesterday we were on the edge of late when the S-Train got in the car for school. His socks and shoes were in his hands. He had no backpack and no coat. But he had a light saber.

Its the Little Things that make us smile!

302. Sparkling Toenails. I just made up my own color. Mauve with gold sprinkles over the top. It makes me happy.

303. An awesome principal. Who not only will try on the superman outfit we got for her - but will fly all around the gym where kids were practicing Veteran's Day songs. The office staff were in giggles. The kids all turned their heads in unison to watch her, but never stopped singing! Amazing!

304. Sesame Street does it again! I found this on another blog.

Here we come Fall!

That last header was kind of somber for a blog that is supposed to be about what makes me smile. I just liked the patterns. And I had no good fall pictures this year. Last year fall was a blaze of glory. This year many trees are fading into a bare limbed state. It's gotten a little colder, so more color is starting to pop out. Hopefully we get the color pop around here before the leaves have just browned and wrinkled off the trees. But even if the leaves are a little less spectacular than last year, there are still plenty of beautiful trees. And (301. Leaves and Wind.) it's so fun to watch the wind brush the leaves off the streets and whirl them into street and driveway dervishes. A good brisk wind on a fall day blows all kinds of cobwebs away.

Some things are easier with friends

300. Running.
I'm not the best runner. Or the most consistent. And I'm very slow. But having moms who wake up early and are willing to run at 5:45 in the morning three days a week has been a huge blessing. Some days we just walk. But that's OK, because usually someone has longer legs than mine (not hard, I know) and I work up a sweat walking with them. (Their walk=My slow jog).
So, while anticipating running is not fun yet, having run feels so good. I'm actually getting to the part where exercising gives you more energy instead of just sucking it out of you.
We run the same distance we did when we started (about 3 miles). But it's getting easier!! I don't have to walk as much, and I can talk more while I run. I want to do a 5 or 10 K in the spring. I just hope I can keep this up. Hopefully it's not as cold this winter as it was last year!