Games, part 2

Over Christmas break we also played The Game of Things by Parker Bros.  Draw a card, which will give you a topic.  Write three things to go with that topic, then someone reads the answers and you try to match up who wrote what.

You can also keep score, but we don't.  Sometimes that is the best way to play a game.

Example:  "Things that need a good cleaning."

This was a good one, and I will share with you the best reactions below - made possible by Jackie (in the red) and Katie (in the blue).

(Garrett could hardly keep his composure as he read the answers, by the way.  And these were his own answers that he was reading)

"Things that need a good cleaning"

"Ginger's teeth" - goes without saying.  Ginger is their small annoying dog.

"Jackie's upper lip" - again, this should have been expected.  Garrett has been teasing his sister Jackie about her facial hair since they were in middle school.  Obviously it's non-existent.

"Man-hands" - the nickname that Garrett and Jackie's husband Jared have affectionately given a certain government employee who they come in contact with from time to time in Savannah.

It was a fun night.

Let the games begin

Playing games with Garrett's family can be pretty.... stressful.  It's hard to get everyone in the mood to play; certain people claim to "hate" games and refuse to participate.  Others only like certain games and are pretty picky about how long we play.

This vacation, however, everything changed.  For four nights straight, we spent literally hours sitting around the kitchen table laughing.  We play two new games that have proven to be successful in making everyone happy.

The first game doesn't have a name, that I know of - but if you recognize my description and know the name, let me know.  Here's how it works:

Everyone gets one blank piece of paper.  Write a sentence at the top - preferably an "action" sentence, but it can really be whatever you want it to be.

This step takes a lot of careful thought... for some people.  For others it just comes naturally.

Once you have completed your sentence, pass your paper to the person on your right (person #2).

Person #2 will read the sentence you wrote, then they will draw a picture depicting the sentence.

Person #2 will then fold the top of the paper so that the original sentence is hidden, and only their picture is showing.  They will then pass the paper to the person on their right - person #3.

Person #3 will only see the picture that person #2 drew.  They will then write a sentence describing what they think the picture is showing.  Then they fold the paper down so that only their sentence is showing, and then next person (#4) will draw a picture depicting the latest sentence.

The best part is the end, when the paper has gone around the entire table.  The final sentence is nothing like the original, and you open it all up to read how it became so wild.

Then we take turns going around the table and sharing our final stories with everyone else.

Laughter guaranteed (especially combined with lots of sugar, caffeine, and that late-night-can't-stop-giggling-syndrome that I love).  I can't wait to play it the next time my side of the family gets together!

The second game tba.

Christmas quilts

Last year I made quilts for Garrett's sisters for Christmas.  I love making quilts.  In fact, sometimes it's very hard to give them away - especially this year.  I loved them so much!  This year, I made quilts for my own side of the family.

I made this quilt for my brother's wife Shauna.  I decided to have lavender be my main color, because I remembered that she used to have a lavender bedspread so I knew she liked the color.  I accented it with mint green and gray.  I used the "Turning Twenty" pattern and added white sashing to make it bigger.  I love using white/cream fabric now because it really helps the patterned fabrics pop, plus you can make bigger quilts for less money.

I quilted all the quilts with just a simple vertical stripe.  My sewing machine isn't really equipped to allow me to do much else with quilts this size.

I love the back as much as I love the front!  It's a gray fabric with quarter-sized polka dots, with a strip of blocks down the middle.

I made this quilt for my sister Emma.  I just cut up a bunch of 2" strips and made log cabin blocks.  She wanted pinks, and I love the finished look!

I used the remainder of my polka dot fabric on the back, along with a pink fade-to-white fabric.  In the center are some leftover 2" strips from the front.

This is Molly's quilt. She wanted blue and white.  I wish I could have made all the pinwheels the same size, but I didn't have enough fabric!  I think it worked out okay, though.  Just don't look too closely... I am NOT a perfectionist, and I am horrible at matching up all those corners!!  I am just too eager to see the finished product that I don't always take the time to pin like I should.

She has a "solid" back (no stripe like Emma's and Shauna's), and I used a blue and teal binding to coordinate with both sides.

Mom wanted an Amish quilt.  Basically, this just means that I used black fabric instead of white, and that the colors are all solid, jewel tones.  This one was a monster to quilt on my little machine because I followed the zig zags.  My shoulders and arms were very sore by the end!

I used coordinating thread when I quilted it.  The black zig zags had black thread, and purple had purple, etc. On the back, each color showed up in the thread.

I don't have a picture of all four quilts because I had to get these three in the mail and my mom's wasn't quite done yet!  I am glad I started these in May.... two kids has been such an adjustment that I don't think I would have gotten them done if I'd started any later!

I wish I could make quilts for everyone I love, and if money was no object I would definitely try.  Merry Christmas, girls - I hope you find good use for these quilts!  I love you!

Dinner group

For the last 2.5 years, we've been having dinner twice a month with some friends from medical school.  We switch from house to house, spending an evening of laughter, games, and great conversation.

2009 was a big year for our dinner group. Five of the six girls had babies, all in a matter of a few months. All the guys have spent the last 2 months caught up in residency interviews, and all of our lives are about to change dramatically in the next 6 months. It's an exciting time, but scary too! I will be pretty sad when the time comes for all of us to go our separate ways.  We will most likely end up in 6 different places.  I already look forward to the reunions we'll have someday!

Preston (Oct), Janey (July), Maddie (Aug), Avery (July), Ellie (July)

**Thanks Rob for the great pictures!!

Conversation

Today I called Garrett while he was on the road to another interview, somewhere in the midwest... I had some news that I just couldn't wait to share with him!  Here's how it went: (it's hard to really convey my husband's sarcastic humor, but if you know Garrett.........)

Me: Garrett, guess who is coming to the James Brown Arena in May!!
Garrett: uhh... Pioneer Woman?
Me: No, guess again.
Garrett: uhhhh
Me: Carrie Underwood!!!
Garrett: sick!
Me: We HAVE to go, I love her!
Garrett: No we don't, you aren't dragging me to that.  It's too expensive anyway.
Me: Actually, it's only like $30.  It can be for my birthday!
Garrett: $30?? You want to sit up in the nosebleed section and pay $30??  You won't even be able to see her.
Me: Um, we sat near the back of the arena when we saw Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, and it wasn't bad at all!
Garrett: I hated that concert.
Me (ignoring his last comment): Anyway... the only problem is, it's on a Sunday.  So we can't go to the one here.  We can go to the concert the night before, in Columbia. [only an hour away]
Garrett:  She has a concert the night before in Columbia?? That means it's a horrible concert.
Me: .....????
Garrett: Any concert that is two days in a row is a bad concert.  You shouldn't be able to take down the set, drive it to another venue, and set it up again for a concert the next night.   That means it's lame. It's a bad concert.
(I'm so confused I don't know what to say for a minute)
Me: You are such a cynic.
Garrett: I'm a realist.

So anyway.... Carrie Underwood is coming in May!  Who's in, ladies???

On Motivation

Will someone please tell me how to motivate myself to get anything done when Garrett is not around?

It's interview season: Garrett has been traveling the country, trying to find the place(s) where we will live for the next 5 years.  It's a very exciting time for us but I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to get things done.

Since November 30, Garrett has spent a total of, oh, 4 nights at home.  (Ok, when I actually figure that out in my head, it's not that bad).  He'll be back on Saturday, thankfully, and will have TWO WEEKS OFF, which I'm really looking forward to.

But tell me: how do you motivate yourself to get things done when your husband isn't coming home from work that night, or even the next day for that matter?  I love when Garrett calls me when he's on his way home from school because that's my cue to run around the house and clean everything up so he can come home to a clean house.  It's also my motivation to have a nice dinner in the works, and have the table set.

But that call doesn't come much anymore, so the house goes undone.  Dinner is an afterthought.  I don't even know how many times I've fed Abby cheese quesadillas, spaghetti-o's, or a sandwich for dinner (thank goodness for gummy bear vitamins, right?).  I eat whatever I can scrounge up after she goes to bed - usually a sandwich or maybe a sweet potato and a salad.

I don't like going to bed alone (ok, let's face it, I don't usually like going to bed at all), so I stay up until midnight at least, sometimes 1.  When Garrett was in Arizona/Utah I was up until 2 a.m. many nights, waiting for him to Skype with me.

One thing I hate about blogging (or, any writing for that matter) is that my tone can't come across right.  I'm NOT complaining.  Just trying to find out how people motivate themselves when they don't have a spouse to keep tabs on their daily progress.  No one coming to the house to see if you've vacuumed, or even gotten out of your pajamas.

Sure, I could go on many of the trips with Garrett, but the truth is I just don't feel like it.  If we had only an infant, it would be much more feasible.  Abby is an excellent traveler but I would hate to ruin that by sticking her in a car for days on end, sleeping in random hotel rooms and then just doing it all over again.  That, and I really dislike sharing a bedroom with my kids - no one sleeps well.  We'll be doing that enough over Christmas break.

So anyway... any advice?  I know most of you will want to say, "just do it for YOURSELF, so that YOU feel better."  Meh, ok.  But I'm not feeling bad, just unmotivated.  How do military wives deal with this??

Win a cookbook, on me.

The Pioneer Woman is a blog that I read regularly.  I found it a couple years ago through Sue Kane's blog (she blogged about one of her recipes once).  Since then, I've been enchanted by her beautiful photos and delicious recipes.  In fact, she was one of my inspirations when I started the food storage blog.

The Pioneer Woman has recently come out with a cookbook and is currently on a "book tour", where thousands and thousands of people (women, mostly) have flocked to her to get their cookbooks signed.  I am not one of those women, because I was not feeling adventurous on Monday.  But my friend (and blog partner) Abbie drove two hours and braved the crowds to get PW to sign a very special cookbook... a cookbook for one of our Safely Gathered In readers!

So head on over to our food storage blog and sign up to win - and enjoy our new look!

Blessing

I spent lots of time in November thinking of my blessings.  I am so grateful for the things I have and enjoy in my life.

Speaking of blessings, we had the opportunity to bless Ellie in October.  For those who aren't familiar with this term:  in our Church, men have the Priesthood, which is the power of God here on earth.  It's the same power that Jesus Christ used to perform miracles when he was living on the earth 2000 years ago.  Garrett has the Priesthood, and when babies are born in LDS (Mormon) families, the father gives the baby a special blessing to start their lives.  Traditionally these blessings are held during Church on Sundays; however, that's not the rule, so our family usually opts to do it at home.  That way, we can do it on our own schedule and invite people who may not be able to attend otherwise.

Ellie's blessing was such a wonderful experience!  My parents came from Pennsylvania, and Garrett's parents were here as well.  We also had some good friends here from Church, and several good friends from school were in attendance as well.

We started by singing "Families Can Be Together Forever", then had a prayer.  Garrett took a few minutes to talk about the Priesthood and explain to our friends what he would be doing.  Then, Ellie was blessed by Garrett, with our fathers and our Bishop in the circle with him.

We also framed some copies of the "Proclamation to the Family", which we gave to our friends who aren't members of our Church.  We are so thankful that they could come and share that special time with us.

One of the neatest things about the day was that Ellie was able to wear a very special dress.  It was handmade in the 1800s by one of my ancestors on my Grandma Siebach's side.  I am so thankful that she let us borrow it for the occasion.

Baby blessings are so neat - they make me really think about what a blessing children are, and what a great responsibility it is to raise them righteously.  I feel in awe that my Heavenly Father has entrusted me to raise two of his precious daughters here on earth.

Gratitude

I am so blessed.

Halloween

Oh, did I forget the "Happy"? Darn.

For a Halloween Grinch such as myself, I sure got pretty involved with Halloween this year. It was a labor of love, if I do say so.

Or a Trick. (no treat here)

I had the pleasure of helping my mother-in-law with a six-year-old birthday party on Friday night. There were seven guests (Emily Post would be proud) and boy oh boy... no words can really describe the chaos. Five-and-six-year-olds, you know.

This Grinch spent the day making mini BBQ hot dogs bloody toes, open faced quesadillas with three cheeses candy corn sandwiches, mini bagels mummy sandwiches, string cheese witch fingers, and a graveyard scene cake. We played pumpkin punch (punching a pumpkin (helium) balloon which was weighed down with a canned good), spider ring toss, and enjoyed swinging a wooden bat at a pinata. Yes, we gave hyped up six-year-olds a wooden bat.

And, in the spirit of trying-to-be-a-good-parent, I was enthusiastic enough to borrow (at the last minute) Rylan's old dragon costume for Abby to wear trunk-or-treating tonight (so un-crafty of me... no regrets). She was sweaty before I even started to put it on her. Welcome to Savannah, would you like some humidity and 85 degree weather?

Maybe next year I will be a better mom and plan my kids' outfits in advance. Maybe they will even coordinate. But probably not.... sorry girls.

Not really.

The witch fingers aren't shown, but they were string cheese with half an olive on the top to look like a fingernail, and little cuts made in the middle to look like a knuckle.

If I have to hear "Ghostbusters" or "Monster Mash" one more time, so help me...

Carved

Garrett prides himself in carving a great pumpkin every year. Here's his 2009 production:

Halloween Grinch

"Do you like Halloween, Hannah?" Garrett's 5-year-old brother asked me over the weekend. I wondered if I should break the truth to him.

There are few things I hate. Very few. Sure, I dislike a fair amount of things, just like anyone else, but "hate" is reserved for special things, like pork & beans (gag) and maroon walls. And Halloween.

Yes, I hate Halloween. I think it's obnoxious - kids go door to door and beg for candy? I don't even LIKE candy (chocolate, yes. Candy, no). I just don't understand why people love it so much... really, someone please enlighten me. Plus I can't ever really think of anything to dress Abby up as (Last year she was Little Red Riding Hood and that was cute, but this year I'm drawing a blank. To be honest I'm not even thinking about it that much). I don't like witches, goblins, spooky things. They just don't appeal to me.

Garrett, on the other hand, loves Halloween. He likes to think of ways to scare the kids that come to our door, and he LOVES carving pumpkins (I actually like that part too. I don't ever carve a pumpkin, but I like seeing what Garrett comes up with). Garrett is like a kid when Halloween rolls around.

And Rylan (Garrett's little brother) is obsessed with Halloween - more than anyone I've ever met. It falls near his birthday, so the two are pretty much related every year. That's why I hesitated to tell him about my true feelings for Halloween-I don't want him to take it personally. The whole time he was here visiting, all he talked about were ghosts, and his upcoming party which is Halloween themed.

I'm not a complete hater. Things I do love right now: autumn. leaves changing colors and falling to the ground. apple cider and doughnuts. hay rides. scarecrows. corn mazes (ok, I've never been to one, but I've always wanted to!). pumpkins. mums. chili cook-offs (but not the cornbread...ugh). Cool, crisp weather. Sweaters and scarves. Apple picking.

So, don't feel too bad for my kids. Sure, their mom isn't into Halloween but I think Garrett's enthusiasm will make up for it. Now, about those costumes... any ideas?

Most things...

Most things are a bit more fun when you have a little helper.

1998

Wow, these were the days, weren't they? My apologies to everyone in this photo, but the opportunity to post it just couldn't be passed up. Here's the real question, though - who's hiding behind Cara??

**Image stolen from Ali's flickr page... hope that's ok! :)

We'll be back....

We will be back to blogging soon!