Baby Oil

Today my husband tried a well-known joke on our 4 year-old.

Daniel: If vegetable oil comes from vegetables, and corn oil comes from corn, where does baby oil come from?

Ev: Mommy and Daddy oil?

To Some Politicians: A Kind Request...

"Be open-minded, but not so open-minded that your brains fall out".
-Stephen A. Kallis, JR.

(I hope Mr. Kallis doesn't mind me using his quote, but I couldn't have said it better)

An Ode to Conversation Hearts

I remember the conversation hearts when we were young, with messages of "Be Mine", "Cutie", and "Kiss Me".

Those were the good ones....


Then came the "Fax Me" and "Email Me" ones.
(Because that's SO romantic...almost up there with "Be My Icon").

I haven't had conversation hearts for a few years, but I wonder...
....do they have "Text Me" yet?

Anyhoo, in celebration of Valentine's Day (or Singles Awareness Day, if you prefer) I thought I'd pay tribute to the little candies (especially the yummy banana-flavored ones) that have been a part of the February love fest since the 1860's.

Conversation Hearts

In February, bring them home,
pink, yellow, lavender
and lime pastels
BE MINE .... I'M YOURS
to be read by the tongue
that licks the chalk
and tastes what it spells.

I'll give you a boxful,
tasting of daphne, lupin,
mint, and columbine;
a mouthful of secrets,
lovelier than whispers,
dear ones, friends
I'M YOURS.... BE MINE

-Nina Payne

No, I didn't miss your class...

Today at church, the bishop in class asked, "Are there any visitors or new people here today? There's one brother in the back I think I've seen before, but I don't know who he is".
Then gesturing at my husband, "Would you stand and introduce yourself?"

My husband stands and says, "Hi. I'm Daniel... We've actually been around a while, but you haven't see us cause.... we're ninjas....."

So...The other night my husband and I were driving in the car and listening to Christmas music on the radio. A commercial came on for a grocery store and the announcer said, "Be sure to stock up on our gourmet cheeses for the holiday season".

"What?!" My husband exclaimed. "Gourmet Jesus?"


So, yes - - here's wishing you all a healthy helping of (gourmet) Jesus this holiday season.

Seeing is Belize-ing!

So many of you know that we recently took a cruise vacation to the Caribbean - Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Bahamas - - all amidst the hub-a-bub of buying a house and preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I suppose, then, it was what you would call a much needed vacation. (Though, we did take all the kids with us).


My son was most excited about riding on an airplane....










...though he was pretty excited about the big boat...

and his bunk bed he got to sleep on...

Our first stop was Cozumel, Mexico, but we hopped on a ferry and went over to Playa del Carmen, followed by a long bus ride to the ruins at Tulum. The ruins were cool there.......and excitement abounded.....

Okay, it was a long day for the kids with a lot of transfers and travel. But if we could get through that, I think we could probably get through anything with them..

Our second stop was in Belize, which, agreeing with our native tour guide, was un"belize"able.
After a tour of the city it was off into the interior for a spicy native lunch followed by a speed boat ride up a crocodile-infested river to Lamanai.

We hiked through the rainforest, climbed Mayan ruins, and saw a toucan and howler monkeys in the wild. Here we say, "Don't eat yellow snow", but there they should say, "Don't drink yellow rain". (Monkeys mark their territories). The jungle was awesome and the climb up the temple is not for those with vertigo or a fear of heights.











(Can you see the little people way below in the photo on the right? I wasn't even at the top when I took it.)





Our third stop was in Hondorus where we went down zip-lines in the jungle. (Our kids went to feed and pet Iguanas with the Grandparents).



Afterwards, we met up with the rest of the family at a beach and observed some of the local animal life....jellyfish, hermit crabs, stray cat and dogs, and biting bugs that left tons of big red spots all over us.

After another day at sea, our last stop was in the Bahamas. There we got some fresh pina coladas and hit the sunny white-sand beach.

It was a great way to cap off a vacation.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . But Not a Pie to Eat!

Yes, I love Halloween.
(The smell of the burnt pumpkins and the candy concoction in your sack?
Ahh.....absolute heaven).
And this Halloween was especially fun because my son finally "gets" the trick-or-treating thing.
Plus,it was great taking him around in jeans and a t-shirt! (Has it ever been that warm before?)
I dressed him in a warm doggie costume, but I don't think he needed it.

My husband gave up on any real costume and wore his "I'm a Shark" t-shirt, complete with drawn dorsal fin on the back.

I wore Halloween socks....


But we had chili and bread "bones" for dinner (perfect for little dogs and courtesy of my mom) and then went to trick-or-treat with some cousins.

We also carted our carved pumpkins around in the car with us so we could light them on Halloween night at our final destination. (Though we have lit them since on our own porch....and will until they die).
(And who knows... maybe they'll just get replaced by some of our uncarved pumpkins that I'll eventually do Thanksgiving carvings on).
Many of you have seem my pumpkins already, but I'll post them here as well, along with my husband's "Foreclosed" Haunted House pumpkin.




(My husband's scary foreclosure pumpkin)




(My Twilight movie pumpkin - I tend to do things that are currently popular at the time on my pumpkins. This one I did on a whim and started on the pattern after 7:00 and had the whole thing finished before midnight).



(My witch and cauldron pumpkin actually took longer than the Twilight pumpkin, carving-wise.)