Demons BeGONE

Six Haunting Halloween Memories

1. There was the year I decided to be a cat. (198?) I wore black tights and a black leotard. What to do for accessories?--no problem: got some black construction paper, cut 2 triangles out for ears and taped them to my head. Next, borrowed my mom's eyeliner and penciled in some whiskers on my face. Lastly, cut a piece of black yarn and taped it to my rear-end. Voila--ready to strut next to the pretty princesses in the school parade.



2. Another year (198?) I decided to be a traditional Japanese woman. I painted my face white, my mom had the perfect red silky robe--that must have been my inspiration. I put my thin short hair into a bun the best I could and inserted some chopsticks. The only thing left was to spray paint my hair black. What happens when you mix black with toe-head white??? GRAY. So, again, ready to march in the school parade next to the supermans and storm troopers. I felt pretty discouraged after the fifth person said, "What ARE you? an old lady?"
3. When all else failed (198? and '8?) I could be a rock-star. Rat up that short blonde hair, use the eyeliner ,again--this time for a beauty mark (think, Madonna), and wear a jean skirt with shirt tied in a knot. Then put a coat over all of it because it would be so dang cold outside nobody would even know I was wearing a costume.


4. There was the year (198?) my mom said she was giving out the BEST TREAT EVER--so good she wouldn't tell me what it was. I had to convince my friends it would SO be worth walking all the way down my dark street to get. We knocked on the door and my mom answered with a big box of old, used-up kids books--MY old used up kids books. "Hey kids, pick out a book"-- Oh the humiliation.
5. My up the street and around the corner neighbor was famous with all trick-or-treaters because he gave out regular sized candy bars!!! and if you could answer some trivia about his family--you could earn more than one!!! Lucky me, we were neighbors so except for knowing the middle names of his children I was still able to walk away with a few big candy bars! SCORE! (If he didn't know you, or couldn't answer any questions, you walked away with a dum-dum.) Well, there I was at the pinnacle of my candy-gathering, pillow-case bursting maximum, when a too-old-to-be-trick-or-treating teenager came over and demanded I give him my bag. My little knees wobbled--this had to be a joke, right? No-- he took it and then took off! I hope he's somewhere repenting in sackcloth and braces for his cruelty.



6. I did have one succesful year which seems like a good one to end on. My big brother (who did a few nice things for me growing up) actually MADE me a robot costume. It was awesome--constructed out of cardboard boxes, lined with tinfoil. It even had a cut-out slot I could open up to put my candy in. -- The first time I was truly proud to march in the school parade but I think that I wasn't even old enough to be in school that year. It was a good one-- 198?-something.

There you have it , I've excercised my Halloween demons from the '80's. It's about time! Now I feel ready for another year of spooks. There's nothing like the C. family Halloween party to get you in the spirit (see previous post) and a good ol' trip to the local pumpkin patch. ( see our version here http://www.sliceofpihomeschooljournal.blogspot.com/ ) That's the good stuff.

You won't see me in cool costume this year, or any costume for that matter. But, my kids will be dressed up (only slightly better than I was) and ready for the school parade--oh yeah, we do homeschool.

PARTY CENTRAL

Phew! If ever there was a full weekend of family fun--it was this one. While our neighbors were out enjoying the last hunt of the year and their wives convening for their own parties (thank you Brandon for not being the least bit interested in guns) we headed up to the big city to join family-- (who thankfully also are not interested in guns.)

If you're going to go out and get manly with nature, golfing is a way better choice: less time, less money, less dangerous, less smelly, and no carcasses to deal with. That is how Brandon and a few other husbands spent the morning, on a beautiful mountain course.

They got back in the nick of time for their wives to join the annual C. family ladies LUNCHEON, followed by the ladies CRAFT. Lucky for me, there was no painting involved in this year's project. Just pretty hair bow's for little girls. So fun. I felt my creativity getting better with each one. Here is a random sampling of some of everyone's (thanks to T for the good ideas). I'm thinking this was so fun I will want to make more when I get a crafty minute this weekend. Ladies, let's work on improving the glue gun--how bout super sticky dots or something that will keep our fingerprints intact.

Last the best of all for the day...The C. Family Halloween Party. Riddles, guess the candy in the jar, donut-eating contest, cake-walk, pinatas, the spooky backyard forest, an almost true ghost story that scared baby Cannon, and the Monster Mash (Aunt Megz has the moves even when she's preg.!) Then there were all the cool costumes. My personal faves: W.'s road kill, B's monster truck, and Crocodile Cannon. (photo will be on the official Halloween costume post) ....oh the memories our kids are going to have...Thanks to everyone.

And as if that wasn't enough partying we carried it over one more day to celebrate the baby blessing of 2008 baby #6, who isn't just a number, he is the newest cutest member of the C. fam.! What a weekend! And that explains why my facebook page says, "I'm glad to be home."

Thanks to CC for hosting us and providing us with all the things we forgot to pack.

My Out--What's Yours?

Thanks Mom, for not letting me quit the cello! You'd think she would have given up after all the complaining and threatening I did. It worked for the piano. And yes, she was right I regret not having taken more lessons. In High School I kind of had to choose between soccer and the cello--but after I learned that soccer season started with summer training at 6 a.m. everyday it wasn't such a hard decision. I loved playing in orchestra with all my cool friends. Brandon says orchestra people are nerds...I try to correct him..."No that's BAND." But, whatever. Anyway, playing the cello was great. Then I found out you could earn money playing the cello. That was the best high school job ever to play in a string quartet for weddings, parties, etc. One time we didn't get paid, so we went to the gate of Temple Square, set out our cases, and began playing Pachelbel's Canon in D. The cello has the easy part so I was able to look up and see our music have an effect on people: couples nuzzling in close, holding hands, children with eyes a-sparkle--okay I made up that one. But, for sure it made people feel generous. We earned 20 bucks in that 20 minutes-- our best gig ever!At this stage of life, playing the cello is my out--girls night out. A group of us get together every Thursday evening (during the school year) and play. Sometimes we play for church functions, or community events, sometimes we play at the schools. And once in a while we even get PAID to play--like yesterday. We played for a wedding: bridal chorus , wedding march and all! Fun Fun! We love it. We do have our differences though:

Violin I might say for example, "Let's play Pachelbel super fast."

and I might say, "No way, that would be sacreligious."

and violin II might say, "Forget Pachelbel let's play Pirates."

and I might say, "not at MY wedding you wouldn't."

and then pretty soon our bows are clashing. "Pirates" is what we call the medley of music from the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean." It is super fun and swashbuckling and Halloween-y all at the same time--but not the best song for a wedding. We played it anyway. After an hour of classical hits we figured no one was listening to our background music anyway. Then we played Mozart's "Eine Kleine" and got a standing ovation--apparently they WERE listening!

Just as a bonus, I'm going to include some of our favorites besides the aforementioned--in case you want to add some class to your iPod.

Vivaldi--Four Seasons

Handel--Water Music, Royal Fireworks, Messiah, Largo, Entrance of the Queen of Sheba

Bach--Air, 2 Gavottes from the D Major Suite, Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring

Boccherini--Minuet

Mozart--Marriage of Figaro, all of his string quartet stuff.

Schubert--Ave Maria, Moment Musicale, March Militaire

Mouret--Rondeau

There are of course many other great classical hits. These are just a few that are arranged for string quartet and these are pretty much what we would play if you hired us for a wedding --**Pirates upon special request.

20, 10, 5, 1...

20 years ago:

I thought boys had it way better in life. I was a tomboy and played soccer at recess with the rest of the boys. I loathed Tuesdays because that meant piano lessons-- Couldn't wait for Thursdays because that was gymnastics. I didn't know what stage fright was--for extra credit I would memorize poems (mostly shel silverstein) and volunteer to recite them in front of class. Boy have I changed...



10 years ago:

I decided I better learn how to cook. I was newly married and had to tranfer my credits from BYU to the U of U to finish up my degree while BD attended grad school. I spoke Spanish more than English when I worked PT at the hospital as a nurse aide/translator for the newborn and maternity units. We were poor but happy folk.



5 years ago:

2 little kids kept me busy. I was into running and scrapbooking (the cut and paste kind.)



1 year ago:

Blaah! I was so sick with pregnancy I wanted to die. I watched every DVD we owned and had IV's while my kids hopped from neighbor to neighbor and the church brought in food.



Yesterday:

I made cookies in honor of homemade cookie day (I'm so easily persuaded), did homeschool, took B. to gymnastics where I met a nice mom from Peru that I could practice my rusty Spanish with, rode bikes and had foot races in the church parking lot with BD and the kids (BD beat me every time even when he was holding 2 kids), did yoga, pulled an all-nighter thanks to that stubborn baby boy--which brings me today. Zzzzzzzzzzz.