It Finally Happened on this Flight!

Cameron was one of the flight attendants on my flight! Yay! He's looking fresh and perky in his uniform at work, and I am at the end of a long week. He even got to serve my section. I'll tell you this: Halloween evening is a good time to fly. The airports were like ghost towns and the flight was less than 1/2 full.

Silly us.
After we landed in Long Beach, the pilot let him take me into the cockpit for a tour!
It was soooooo cool. See me sitting in the pilot seat? It is a lot smaller than I thought, and there are so many buttons to push and flip. I was amazed that this little space controls such a large traveling machine!

It was fun to catch up with Cam and chat away, when he wasn't working of course!

This auntie loves you Cam!

If It Looks Like A Duck...

...and walks like a duck....

Well, you know the saying!

It Looks Like Halloween To Me!

What can be said about Candy Corn? That delicious, addictive indicator that fall is REALLY here. Can anybody eat just one????

One of our favorite all hallows eve pieces: the haunted mansion with blinking lights and a witch that circles the turret with ghosts laughing.

And the fall mantle.

Tomorrow I'll put out the pilgrims and indians and say goodbye to the tick or treators!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Birthday Gal

Natalie's birthday was yesterday, but everyone was way too busy to celebrate, except Robert of course the wonderful hubby who brought her a rose bouquet in a vase. So we celebrated tonight.

She hasn't had a family birthday in 7 years because it always falls in the middle of the semester and she is away from home. She was very excited to have a cake and her favorite dinner. Brian and Mindy came up too (Robert's brother), and it was good to get caught up with them. Mindy is expecting a baby in June. Pork chops and rice for dinner and Cardiac Arrest Cake (which is our name for Heath Bar Cake)

Happy Birthday Nats!

Love You--

Shaun's Anthropology Project

Shaun has a Chinese Anthropology class.

The students get to choose what they want to do for various projects.

I have to say, he is a pretty good cook, so he decided to do chinese food for his assignment in his group.

Making potstickers at his apartment. I helped him shop and prepare it. We both learned some new things to do with limited resources!

Ham and onions sauteing for the fried rice.

Done. Packed up. Ready to go to campus.

This orange chicken turned out better than a famous local chinese food establishment and for much less money. (The initials would be P.E.) It's from Costco, in a box, and reeeally delish!

And the ham fried rice is just begging to be eaten!

Lots of potstickers.

Good news: it all turned out great and we got it to class on time. Including the paper goods.

Bad news: the professor was sick and cancelled class. Projects will be do in 2 weeks now.

BIG BUMMER!!

So he called his buddies and we all had a really good dinner and took the leftovers to Natalie and Robert.

The Computer?

I am alive and well. MIA in Utah helping Natalie get ready for the baby. She hasn't been able to get much done being a full time grad student and working (insert: no time), so I stayed after the game weekend. We only have MWF to do things 'after school', so I am working on some Christmas things, stitching baby blankies for Cherise (who is due the week after Nats), helping Shaun with school projects, and winterizing the cabin on the off days. I thought I'd have all this 'time' to relax. NOT.

We got the first good snow of the season yesterday, and this California Crazy was out in it fixing the stone borders on the south driveway in the middle of a dumping. Hey. I had on my boots and jacket with a hat and burmudas!! Haha. At least the snow plow won't munch them now.

Shaun has been my handyman helper. He can now use a power drill pretty darn good. And has made many trips to the dumpsters with my cleaning and winter purging. He commented that I hadn't blogged in several days. I just haven't had time for the computer!

I'll try and catch up maybe tomorrow. After I make the Chinese food for his mid-term....

p.s. it is 19* tonight.....brrr...

Box Elder Bugs

...bug the heck out of me!

They are disgusting and can squish themselves flatter than a piece of paper and squeeze through anything you can think of. Even a locked window. Thank goodness for the early cold weather because now they are all dead. But for September and October you just keep the vacuum handy and suck them up!

So today while it snowed I cleaned the south garage. Except I forgot to get them out of the window sills. Next time. I cleaned up the bbq and covered it for winter storage in the garage. Nats and Rob's totes are going to the north garage so all of their stuff is in the same place.

I also did 5 loads of big laundry, and took 8 bags of trash to the dumpster.

I'm sore and tired. I took an advil and am going to sit and do some handwork for awhile before calling it a day.

Babies Need A Lot Of Things

I went down the canyon today. I'll do it again on Wednesday and Friday. Natalie has a very limited window to get things ready for the baby. Tuesdays and Thursdays are completely out with her school schedule. She goes at 9am and doesn't finish until 6pm and at that point a 37 week pregnant gal is too tired to do much but homework and get some dinner on the table. And even MWF's are only after her morning classes. Phew!

But today we did get to the big baby store and she registered and we picked up the rocking chair and ottoman she's had her eye on.

She commented on just how many things a baby needs. Yes, it is a lot. And the first one is an eye opener. Wednesday we will tie up loose ends for the baby and then Friday focus on her and packing her bag for the hospital with all those 'necessities'.

My daughter is going to be a mother. She'll be in the same peer group as I am now. It is a beautiful thing to be a part of.

Mafia, Anyone?

I'd forgotten about these.

Human pyramids.

Please don't fall! That fireplace hearth is a hard one! They were laughing so hard it finally all came down. And now it's a great memory!

The die hards who stayed until the end. The other half left a couple hours before this group did. They play this funny game called Mafia which is kind of like a murder mystery game. It was a lot of fun to observe from behind the scenes. You know. They did invite me to play, but I declined, graciously of course. I had plenty of fun working on a hand project and watching them from afar!

Natalie and The Game

Slept in after our very late flight (it was delayed on our way out and we didn't get in until 2am), and then all things were getting ready for the game. It was awesome to be in Lavell Edwards Stadium. The adrenaline pumps and it always has a festive feel in spite of the fact that we lost embarrassingly to TCU.

We looked for and found Kristin H. She works for catering in the tent. It was fun to hug and catch up even if it was while she was 'on the clock'. Kristin is from our ward at home and was one of my visiting teachers as a Laurel with her mom.

We stopped at Natalie and Robert's to pick him up for the game and grabbed some photos of Natalie and her baby bump. We haven't seen her in a month and couldn't believe how much that little munchkin has grown!!!

She's counting down!

He'll be here before we blink.

A Piece At A Time

Duff and I finally emptied out this cupboard in the garage and added the extra shelves we ordered months ago. Then cleaned it all up and reorgainzed it. We had to throw away some things we weren't so good at rotating and found that the bleach I had stored for laundry and cleaning had exploded at some time and leaked everywhere. I have no idea when that happened, so now I know I won't store it in there again.

On to the other storage in the other garage when I get back from Utah!

Retiring. Oops! "A r c h i v i n g"......

I'm sick. I'm going to vent right now.

The American Girl company is retiring Kristen Larson. Oh, excuse me, I was corrected on the phone just now: she is being archived. What's the difference? They are closing her out and not going to sell her anymore. I didn't even know they did that to Samantha last year!

If you don't know what I am talking about and you don't have girls or granddaughters, then you can skip this post. But if you DO, then please read on!

These are the best dolls EVER.

They are character dolls. They come from a different time period and they teach values and morals and life skills. They are collectors items.

My story:

It was 1990 and my dear friend and neighbor introduced us to these dolls under the original company, Pleasant Company. The entire mission of this company was to introduce girls to dolls that could teach history and values along with play. They recommended a young girl be at least 8 years old, which I agree with. They need to be able to read. Natalie was 7 at the time and I had her look at the catalogue for a whole year and dream about which doll she wanted. She could only pick one, and that would be her collection for many years to come.

She chose Kirsten, a young girl who immigrates with her family from Sweden to America. Each Christmas, birthday, Easter, etc. she would get another 'piece' to add to her collection. She is 25 now, and STILL will set out a 'scene' with the doll according to the season for decoration. And the books. OH, the BOOKS! The stories, the lessons taught and learned! Don't underestimate them.

I remember vividly one night after Duff and I had already turned our light out and were in bed. The door flew open and Nats ran in to us sobbing. She choked out, " Why didn't you tell me her friend dies!?" She couldn't put the book down and was reading with a flashlight under the covers! Clearly moved by the true to life story, she cuddled in between us and we had the most tender, beautiful conversation about friendship, death, coping. Not to give anymore away, the books tell about moving, adjusting, learning, accepting, achieving.

These are quality products. Well made. Reasonably priced for what you get and the craftsmanship. See, yes they really are collectables!

Christine has Kit Kittredge.

A girl living through the Great Depression. (kind of appropriate these days...) Same kind of life lessons. Working together, doing your part, doing without, friendships, unconditional love.

Natalie completed her collection a few years ago. We are still working on Christine's. Even though they are older and don't play with dolls anymore, they look forward to the next installment every Christmas of their collection to complete their set.

Please look into these dolls before they 'archive' more of them. They do offer modern/current day dolls, but I think they should discontinue those, and stick with the character dolls.

How's that for an endorsement?

Happy Birthday Jenn!

We're glad it's your birthday, dear Jennifer.

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to you.

We'll sing you a song for your birthday:

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY

TO YOU!"

Have a great day, my dear!

Love YOU!

Cake, Anyone?

A daughter is telling her mother how everything is going wrong. She's failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her, and her best friend is moving away. On top of it all, her face broke out and she has zits!

Meanwhile, her mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack. Her daughter says, "Absolutely, Mom. I love your cake."
"Here, have some cooking oil," her mother offers.
"Yuck!" says her daughter.
"How about a couple of raw eggs?"
"Gross, Mom!"
"Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?"
"Mom, those are all yucky!"
"Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves," her mother replied. "But when they are put together the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake."

"God works the same way," she continued. "Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good. We just have to trust Him, and eventually, they will all make something wonderful!"

Wise Mother.

[I worked on visiting teaching changes that need to be made. Did the hand watering. Gorgeous Indian Summer day. Crisp morning, warm afternoon. The sun just shines in a different way. Duff and I are working on getting the additional shelves put in the garage cabinets for our food storage. I thought it would be a snap, but realized once we got into it that it is way more involved if I want to do it right. That little organization devil is sitting on both of my shoulders! So we will get the one in the larger garage finished tomorrow, only to have to do some more adjusting when we work on the other garage. Now we have a much better idea of what will work best, and that should make the next phase smoother. I must add, that after all these years, he is still my bestest friend and I love working with him on these kind of projects.]

The Most Important Words

--The 6 most important words: I admit I made a mistake.

--The 5 most important words: You did a good job!

--The 4 most important words: What is your opinion?

--The 3 most important words: "If you please", and, "I love you"

--The 2 most important words: Thank You.

--The 1 least important word: I

--Anonymous

Another Death In The Family :(

The Duffy Bisque Kenmore Chest Freezer passed away on Saturday, October 17, 2009 from complications due to old age. She was 25 years old. Born in 1984, her first home was in Westminster and she made the move in 1994 to Trabuco Canyon. Lovingly cared for, Kenmore stood proudly in the background of the Duffy Family garage. Oh! The stories she could tell of family holidays and parties, weddings, scouting, church and school activities, and Costco trips. Those were her favorites. The Costco trips! That meant a thorough cleaning/defrosting and replenished to fill the measure of her creation. In her later years, she suffered with a broken right hinge that made lifting her lid difficult, but she never complained! A bit of rust here and there hampered her appearance, but she stayed true to the end when her motor just quietly stopped. Kenmore was laid to rest on Tuesday, October 20, in the Sears junkyard. She is survived by her owners and many neighbors and friends who she lent her help to over the years.

Sad. Sad. Saying goodbye is hard. We saved and saved to buy this. It was $350. Interesting fact: after 25 years the new and improved model wasn't much more than that! Many a mouse passed away by climbing in that motor area to get warm! The new versions motors are covered.

Introducing:
Kenmore II
Born: October 20, 2009
Vitals: 25 cubic feet
White
3 upper baskets
lower grid system for optimal storage organization
Proud Family: The Duffy's
Special Feature: 65% more energy efficient!

Loyal to Kenmore I, I balked at this storage grid. And blue accessories. It didn't take long to become converted! We did order one more additional top basket.

Nothing falls on top of or slides on other items.
It's awesome!

Putting it all away.

Ready for another Costco trip!

Welcome to the Family, Kenmore II!

Back To School Night--YW Style!

Back To School Night Of Excellence!

Can I just say again, for I don't know how many times, that we have a great ward and a fabulous youth program. The RS room was simply but wonderfully decorated like a classroom. And everything the whole program was similar to a back to school night only with the students attending.

SO CLEVER!

Class is in session. They have stood to sing (for music time) the Opposites Song:

"When things aren't going exactly my way,

When I have feelings of total dismay.

I ponder the reason--this has to be,

And as I consider,

I can clearly see:

(Chorus)

Most things have an opposite.

Most things come in pairs.

And many times I can benefit if I do not despair...

Whoa---

Hot has Cold. Black has White.

Up has Down. Day has Night.

Life has Death. Good has Bad.

Young has Old. And Happy has Sad----

If I didn't know about bad, about cold,

Something of death and the sad and the old.

Then I wouldn't know about wrong and right,

And I wouldn't know the joy of good and light!"

(Repeat chorus.)

They had an elementary school picture of each girl on an apple cutout hanging from yellow yarn from the ceiling. And, the girls were asked to dress and wear their hair like they did when they were younger.
Great talk from Sister Koelliker, the president. And a 'matching game' on the chalkboard for a pop quiz! We matched candy bars to YW related phrases.

Then each table--remember how you would have to do things by table in school?--presented one of the projects they had accomplished this year. Christine worked on and completed Knowledge. She is currently working on Good Works and has her project planned, just needs to execute it.

After each girl gave their presentation their poster was placed on the 'bulletin boards' all over the 'classroom'. I wanted to get a picture of hers there, but she was too quick getting it down!

Items from her 'desk'.

Very timely closing remarks from the Bishop.

Loved it all. Great job everyone!

DWTStars

Okay. I've loved this show. I am a dancer at heart. But raunch is raunch and doesn't belong here. They pushed the limit tonight. They need to eliminate those new dances they've added and go back to the originals. I watched through Donny and Kym's dance (which was tastefully done--thank you!), voted and then...

I turned it off!

I'm going to write a very strongly worded letter to the producers.

All Things Sunday

Gosh, I like that this day is different than the other days of the week. I need it.

Meredith is very sick with the flu/cold. Duff went over to help Josh give her a blessing this morning. Get well soon!

Had all the kids over for dinner and FHE. We usually do this on the first of the month. We've had conference and Wendy's funeral so we're finally getting to it. We love doing this and look forward to it each time. Lasagne with the trimmings and a good lesson on Friendships.

Day Trip To San Diego

Divide and conquer!

That was the 'game plan' for this morning. Duff and Christine headed to Newport for her lacrosse games and I did the weekly grocery shopping, picked Josh up from dropping off their car for maintenance, and got things ready for the day trip to San Diego.

BYU vs. San Diego State

All the pom poms in a cup holder ready to go!

Biiiiig stadium! Also home to the Chargers.

Meredith's littlest bro at his first BYU game! He really enjoyed himself and can tell you everything available to have for a snack! He loved the whole experience and was so good.

Fans.

Chris and her friend, Sarah.

Stadium nachos. Why is it they taste so good outside?

Such a cute couple!
Mike and his Adriannie.

She is such a good sport. Not a big football fan, and if she votes for a team it would probably be the U (sigh, argh...) since she went there, but for Duff, she'll don the blue and white at least once a year!

Gwen and I trying to get pictures at the same time, so the guys row in front of us didn't know where to look. Bob E., Josh, Eric (Mere's brother), and his friend, the one and only Taylor D.!

Victory, but they answered back quite a bit. SDSU has a new coach and you can see the improvements.

Ooooh. Come on guys. TCU next week!

[ anniversary of my mom's car accident in '89. Twenty years. That was a very bad day. Duff and I were out of town at colleges doing recruiting for Ernst and Young, my dad was in San Francisco for work while the huge earthquake hit and we couldn't find him. My mom was staying with our kids and taking Mike to scouts at the church. She turned left when the traffic light turned yellow, but a man on a motorcycle split the traffic lanes and wanted to make the light, gunned his bike and hit our van as if there was a bullseye target on the side. All 4 of our kids at the time were in the van. It was totaled. The motorcycle man was dead at the scene, revived, and later died at the hospital of massive injuries. No helmet, no license. Middle bench seat of our van pushed out the other side with 2 of our children on it. My mom was charged with vehicular manslaughter, we were sued. It was a MESS!!! The police department was in an ongoing battle with the city where we lived at the time and happened to use this case as one they were going to make an example of. We know what it is like to have horribly false lies printed in the newspaper! Don't believe everything you read! Fortunately, we had an amazing attorney, who just happens to be Meredith's father!---who would have thought!---and all of us were cleared of all charges. We sure learned a lot through this. But my mom, even all these years later, still has a hard time driving. I'll have to devote an entire post to this one day. What I've written here is only the 'readers digest' version/synopsis.]

Gee, Shucks. You Didn't Have To...

When I got back from school car pool, there was a package on my porch.

Brown boxes on porches bring such excitement, don't they!

Inside was this sweet angel statue (which I happen to love all things Willowtree...), and such a tender card from Shelly, Sheri, Auntie Tia, and Uncle Bob.

Thank You.

Ahh. It was my pleasure!

Love You All and miss you too...

f.r.i.d.a.y.

Getting back on track. Company beds all freshly laundered and made. Plus 4 large loads of towels. Two big essentials! I'm not a real 'have-to-get-out' person. I'm really kind of a homebody at heart, and I like these days where you get a lot done to keep the home-fires burnin'!

The leaves on my white birch and liquid amber trees are changing and they are lovely. The wisteria is on it's last legs too. The sun is setting earlier and the way it shines tells us it is fall. Oh the subtleties. It's nice to notice subtleties. I makes you dig inside and notice other subtleties as well.

Shaun is hanging out at the beach today with friends. THE BEACH. In October! Yep, this is sunny socal.....

Got WOOD?

The winter wood was delivered today. I think we are set. I know I've been dreaming of a gas unit, but when I see it outside all stacked so nicely, I feel like I can count it toward my emergency preparedness/food storage. Between this and the charcoal in our storage, we could have warmth and hot meals for quite some time here.

We got a mix this year that doesn't have a lingering campfire smell. I didn't realize the kind of wood makes a difference. Geez, I continue to learn!

Bach, Beethoven, Pops Anyone?

Tonight was Christine's Fall Orchestra Concert.

One word:

AMAZING!

Wow. I had no idea the talent and the great instruction. It was a great end to the day.

Sweet Rain Brings Surprises!

Lots of soft rain today! We sure have needed it. Please send some more! I love the change of earth's colors when it rains. Everything seems to sigh with freshness.

The Slades went to see the temple and Roger's Gardens with Meredith, who had work off today. Then down to the beach to the tidepools and frolicking in the waves. The afternoon weather cleared up just in time for the beach and they had a really good experience.

Home for some penne with marinara and meatballs. Car packed, and on the road for the trip home.

Hugs and kisses and tears from little girls not wanting to leave. Sigh...

And Now For the Surprise: Shaun and some friends decided to come home for the weekend. All of a sudden we get a phone call that he is in the driveway! Yes, they drove through the night. Fun to have him here, but that driving through the night thing scares the "holy cow" out of me. Too many people I loved have died from falling asleep at the wheel on long drives....

The One Where Normal Feels Good

Just normal things today. Like making beds, cleaning the house, working in the yard in between rain showers. The coolness felt so good against me. The wet earth let go of the weeds so willingly. The little Slade girls so precious. I played several games of Go Fish and Matching. Swang them on the hammock. Nothing like these simple things to make the transition back to some normalcy.

Duff set up the firewood frame. Winter's wood will be here on Thursday. I was so hoping for a gas unit this winter. So much cleaner. But alas, the wood is less expensive so it is the option for another season. It's not like we use it to heat the house. It is purely for ambience and all that Norman Rockwell stuff. It's socal after all! I count it as emergency prep and Duff has accepted the responsibility to clean the ashes the morning after this year. YAY! I really don't like that job....

I think my best ally the last two weeks has been prayer. It's helped me get through all the events on my calendar and all the ones not on my calendar that showed up!

Mere and Echelle helped me get taco dinner on the table. Many hands make light work.

I felt normal today. It feels good.

Company--Round 3

The Slades arrived about 9 this morning. They are dear friends of Josh and Meredith from their Arizona days. They drove during the night ready for a day at Disneyland. It was Kaylee's 6th birthday and she could get in for free!

Jeremy put a lot of pressure on Mama and Papa Duff to come. We picked up Christine one period early from school and went up for the evening. One of the perks of living so close and having passes.

The most important items on the agenda for 3 little girls, six years old and under, is to meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and The Princesses! They've changed the Princess process, and to be quite honest, I'm not sure I like it, but oh well!

They've taken the amphitheater area and made it into a meet the Princesses area, with only a maximum of 3 princesses at a time. They have individual greeting areas and walk your party to the next princess. On the one hand it's nice because you get a lot of one on one time with whichever princesses are on rotation, but the line is long (a minimum of an hour wait), and no guarantee of which or how many princesses.

That being said, the expressions of delight on the girls faces was priceless!

Princess Aurora, or better known as Sleeping Beauty.

Coincidentally, she is our own Aubrey S., who is in Meredith's ward!

Princess Aurora is always in character! Down to the hand motions and tone of voice. She let us know that she "is always happy to have her 'friends' come for a visit!" wink ;) wink ;)

Cinderella, she's as lovely as her name!

So gracious, and kind.

The girls were mesmerized.

Bibbity Bobbity Boo!

Cinderella's Fairy Godmother.

What a love!

Can I apply for this character? Can you imagine what a fun job this would be?!

I think I'm gonna log this one away....

Papa Duff was in heaven with the little girls. I think he watched almost all the Disney princess movies we have in our library, and they smothered him with hugs, kisses, and cuddle time. They even woke him up for waffles one morning jumping on him in bed with slobbery kisses and trying to raise the blinds.

Bring on the grandkids!