Oh still my beating heart...Here is Rus. Joe Dirt. Business in the front, party in the back.
This year was the year that I convinced Rus to actually dress up for a halloween party. My friend had a mullet wig (two, actually), and I borrowed it for Rus to wear so we could both be flashbacks of the amazing eighties. And then 80's-Rus morphed into Joe Dirt-Rus with authentic Joe Dirt-shaped-sideburns and a stellar face-paint-enhanced goatee and mustache. He even tore his sleeves and found some holey jeans. To be quite honest, it was a little too easy for Rus to become Joe Dirt...
As for me, you'll probably agree that it's easy to find eighties clothes right now just at regular stores like Marshalls and Target. I found my off the shoulder shirt at Target on clearance along with my leg warmers (they were actually in the little girl's section). My great shiny pants were from the "hideous legging" aisle at Marshalls, my skirt was actually Bekah's skirt (she was worried I'd stretch out the waist. I didn't.), and my hair was ALL MINE. My hair was MADE to be big!!
Don't we look AWESOME?! (Don't answer that...)
Ah my hair in this picture looks like how my oldest sister's hair looked all through high school!
It was epic.
The end.
I had a birthday last week. I know you all know this because facebook told you so.
My mom told me that I wasn't turning thirty, I was turning flirty. I personally don't think that being flirty in my current situation is a great idea...unless it means I'm flirty with Rus? Anyway...
Yay!
I'm THIRTY!
I guess this means I'm going to start seeing gray hairs and wrinkles and my body is going to start breaking down all the time. And my memory will go and I'll call everybody the wrong name all the time (my own kids, esp.), and I'll stop doing adventurous things like wrecking motorcycles and doing handstands in public...
But the tradeoff is now I have some years of experience to back all of the wisdom that I have to share with the world...and now my spot at the grown up table at family dinners is secure...and I can wear sweats more. (right?)
Here I am, all grown up. (*sigh*)
How do you feel about a high bun? I feel sort of ridiculous but I love it at the same time...and now that I'm thirty I never care what people think...
See my coat? And my earrings? And my yellow shirt? Yep, my mother still shops for me and thus still dresses me. And I will never be too old for that.
On my birthday DeAnn and I went out for lunch and some lite shopping. A wonderful sister in my ward actually called and volunteered to watch my kids while I went to lunch and so I gave her Marianne but kept Beau because he and Russel love to hang out and fight with each other. I went on a date that night with Rus to the temple...not because I'm so uber wonderful that it's the only place I wanted to be, but because I'm a cheap date and the temple sounded nice. Rus did take me out for dessert afterwards and we got it for free because we arrived just at closing. (I am a cheap date!)
The next day a friend took me out for a mani/pedi and dinner and it was so nice to just hang out and talk and discover the amazingness of freshly buffed fingernails - I never knew they could be so shiny without any polish!!!...Oh, sorry I just had to look at them for a few more seconds...
Then the birthday fun continued this morning when I went to breakfast with my visiting teachers! How great is it to stretch one birthday out over three days?! And now I'm going to go enjoy some birthday oreos and milk...
Last week I did some face painting at a fall festival that a family put together to give back to the Make a Wish Foundation. Their son had been able to have his wish come true because of the Make A Wish Foundation only a few months before he passed away. This awesome family put on a wonderful event - all the proceeds going back to Make a Wish - and I was happy to volunteer my time to help.
Before the event I realized I was pretty short on face paints - I needed to buy more but really wanted to start collecting some professional quality paints (because they do a better job.) I looked all over the internet and researched what types of paints I wanted and then went to order them - but found that I had run out of time and they couldn't be mailed to me (for less than $30 in shipping) by Saturday. So I looked again and found that one of the companies I liked had a website and was located here in ABQ. I called up the number, asked about the paints, and asked where their store was located.
The guy said, "Well, we don't actually have a store. I have the paints - if you email me or call me with what you want after looking on our website, I can bring them and meet you somewhere. We take cash."
Ha.
I wrestled with the thought of dying or getting abducted over face paints for a full day. It was Thursday night when I finally emailed him back and gave him my order. (14mg Black, 14mg White, one rainbow cake, a sponge and a number 4 brush.) At this point I just really needed the paints. (Sure - that's what they all say, right?). I arranged a time for the next morning in the Hobby Lobby parking lot because bad things don't happen there usually. The next day I left my kids with my MIL (no need to have their reputations soiled in a back alley deal), got my cash, and met the person at Hobby Lobby. She turned out to be a woman in her forties who was very nice, normal and helpful. She gave me my paints, I gave her the cash, and all was well. The event the next day was great although it was super windy and colder than necessary.
Here are some pics of my kids - I was practicing on them with my new paints. Bekah's face shows my new black and white...
And this crappy picture of Zaya shows my newly purchased rainbow cake. All of those colors wipe on with a sponge in one bold stroke - so fast and cute!
I have to admit I'm hooked on the new paints. I might be calling my guy again in the next few weeks. ;)
A few months ago my friend Melanie aka "Stake Relief Society President of the Los Lunas Ward," called and asked me to come up with a "Decorating on a Dime" booth and handout for their September Women's conference. I was delighted to do so but found it quite challenging to come up with a good handout that gave tips on cheap decor and and also served as a framework for my booth. I realized that I didn't want to just give a list of inexpensive decorating ideas because everyone's tastes, skills and interests are so varied that one list couldn't really meet the needs of a lot of people. So I stepped back and instead looked at the problem from the perspective of what skills are necessary to be able to decorate on the cheap.
I came up with seven important things to know and skills to have: How to refinish, repurpose, rearrange, think big, be resourceful, paint walls, and have some basic woodworking skills. I came up with a thorough handout on all of those things and then also made a handout about organization and another with seven great tools to own for a beginning woodworker.
Then for my display I decided to show a few things that I had come up with (on the cheap, of course). I made another set of poppies and also tried out spray painting over a lace-valance-template. I bought some plain oak doors at the Habitat ReStore for a buck each and refinished them in two ways - stained and painted. I also used a tube from a mail-packaging store to make tubes for each of my kids to keep their homework and other important papers in.
Here are some pictures of my booth:
On the actual day of the conference I just stood there and answered questions about different things in my booth. It was so fun to see friends that I hadn't seen for quite some time, and it was fun to talk about things that I like to do. (Although I felt funny being an "expert" - I'm not.) In the end I wonder if it was sort of a flop, though, because I had so many people say things like - You made that? I could never do that. - or - I could never use power tools. My husband does that. - or - I'm not that creative... To which I would like to say - If you want it bad enough, you can figure out how to do it. And it might not turn out great the first time, but if you try enough, something is bound to turn out incredible and you will find yourself gushing with self-satisfaction. And you'll be hooked.
Anyway that's that. I would like to share with you a phone message my sister Amy left me after I emailed her my handout. This is verbatim:
"Okay so when you said handout I thought you meant like a little cutesy little handout...not like I'm putting on a seminar on amazing things that if you miss out on you'll be dumber and wrong and very detailed...It looks like you put a lot of time into that...I think you should join the PTO because you have spare time...Anyway, I have not read it, I just wanted to tell you that it looks amazing...and...I'm in my car, which is why I haven't read it..."
Ah...it still makes me laugh. I'm pretty sure she still hasn't read it, but that's okay. Awesome.
Anyone want a very detailed, long handout that is not some cutesy little thing that you might be dumber and wrong if you don't read? ;)
Here we are - such a good looking group. We were bundled up warm, at the Balloon Fiesta Park dark and early with time to spare. We had gotten packed and loaded up and to the park like seasoned pros. And then the winds proved too...windy...for the balloonists and their crews and that was that.
Bust.
It's okay because we brought kites to fly. Amy brought this awesome dragon one...
...it refused to actually fly. We're still not sure if it was a mechanical failure or user error.
Believe it or not, as the sky lightened it actually got colder so after much whining and sadness, we left the park without having seen a single balloon inflate.
Back at home the kids warmed up and hung out for a short hour before we had to head to soccer games.
Aren't Bekah and Sarah so cute?! Sarah had gotten her face painted the week before and it still wouldn't come off. It was an awesome little rainbow skull.
Amy and I worked on crafts, of course. We made an adorable little fabric tote complete with pockets and zippers, and we also made this witch boot. (I found the pattern on pinterest, where else?) I would like to say that Amy loved this project, but she didn't. Well, she loved the finished product, but she didn't like cutting the paper to match the wood boot and had the gall to criticize the wood-cutter (me!). She was mad that I didn't cut it out exactly like the pattern so she could use the pattern to make the paper pieces. Hmph. I redeemed myself by finishing it for her before she left. And it's GREAT. So there.
On Friday night we were at the elementary school playground for Bekah's soccer practice. Joshua and Luke and I ran around playing with a football (still one of the greatest things I learned from cross country practice - how to throw a football), and Mikey and Beau rolled down the hill. Later Amy was running to get a ball and wound up taking a wood chip to the bottom of her foot. It went through her croc flip flop and into her foot. Yuck. At home I delicately tried to get any pieces of the wood chip out while Amy held on to Mikey for dear life. I think Amy thought she was going to die. She didn't. I said "delicately," right?
Anyway, the next day Amy and I decided to play a trick on the kids. We had bought a "gorey flesh" kit from Target and used it to make it look like the wood chip had shot out the top of her foot. We fooled the kids for about ten seconds.
Then they all got in on the action and became scarred zombies. Creepy, huh.
Luke's face was my favorite.
And that was pretty much the end of our weekend. The balloons were a flop but the company was great. The boys spent hours outside finding tarantulas, playing in the ditch and digging in the dirt. Bekah and Sarah disappeared into Bekah's room (aka "Ground Zero") for the whole time. Marianne was a terd, but a cute one who will like people more in a few more years. And Amy compensated for her whining later by forgetting her dual-waffle-maker. We've enjoyed it often, thankyouverymuch.
Yesterday I took some friends and their kids with me and my kids to go see the leaves in Santa Fe. I had been informed by Taffy that they were spectacular...and she was right. See for yourself:
This is my favorite one. Something about the angle and the white trunks makes it look surreal to me...
Sights like this remind me of a scripture in Alma chapter 30, verse 44, "The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it..." The artist in me was struck by the beautiful blend of colors, and realized (again) that Heavenly Father really is the Master creator.
Beau was an awesome hiker. We really didn't go far, but he climbed every little hill on the side of the path that I let him. Here he is showing off his muscles.
Beau, Marianne and I had a wonderful time. We're grateful for friends that are ready for an adventure at a moment's notice!
Rus and I have been married for how many years now, and I just learned of an important (and famous!) family relation...He is about my age, born in Gallup, and has survived years of being on the wrong side of a police revolver. But he can take it because he was made of a different metal that the rest of us. Really.
So to back up for a minute...years ago, Rus's dad Roger (then a state police officer), went to a welder to have some shooting targets made. It was then and there that Arnold was born to a life of dings, dents and holes.
Meet Arnold.
Arnold is a State Police Pig.
And he's a tough old pig at that. He's had a few holes put through him with a muzzle loader but has since been welded up and is as good as new. He even has a sense of humor...
For April fools day one year Rus and Roger loaded up Arnold in the back of Roger's State Police Car and Roger took Arnold to work. Arnold was placed outside Chief Taylor's office looking in. When the Chief came in and saw Arnold he just started laughing. A pig born to take hundreds of hits now holds a respected and dignified post in front of the State Police Office. And here is where Arnold got famous: KRQE news in Santa Fe reported this story last Saturday:
by Alex Tomlin
SANTA
FE (KRQE) - People who think they're being clever sometimes oink at
police officers or even more bluntly just call them pigs.
So you'd think that a pig is the last thing cops would want as their symbol.
But New Mexico State Police have taken the sting out of that insult by embracing it:
This
isn't just any pig, though. This is Arnold, who watches over the state
Law Enforcement Academy at Department of Public Safety headquarters in
Santa Fe.
That's right -- where cops from all over the state spend time training and getting certified before they hit the streets.
Ok--let's address the, umm, pig in the room.
It's a common practice for pigs and cops to be linked. Usually police are not big fans of that connection.
"Pig
was not a complimentary term for police officers, but they turned it
around for themselves and now pig stand for Pride, Integrity and Guts,"
DPS spokesman Tony Lynn said. "And they love it. They absolutely love
it."
This little guy stands for a lot and has put up with a lot
over the years. He was originally made for target practice at the
request of a state cop in Gallup.
He still bears the scars from there.
"He
found his way to Santa Fe, and they put him outside of the office of
one of the New Mexico State Police chiefs, Chief Taylor," Lynn said.
A
few years later, when the state were sprucing up police headquarters,
they let employees decide what art should be placed outside to represent
the building and DPS.
"The pig, which wasn't even one of the art
works up for vote, won," Lynn said. "They mounted him permanently
outside the Law Enforcement Academy, and that's where he sits."
Everyone
has embraced the little guy even putting a wig on him and saying he was
undercover or dressing him up to look like a lieutenant or offering to
get him a donut as they walk by..
No one knows exactly how long
Arnold the pig has been hanging around headquarters, but officials say
they plan to keep him there for good.
