Prop 8 California

Prop 8 in California says that marriage is only between a man and a woman. It was on the ballot in California on election day. It passed! yes!

Now, people are protesting at the Los Angeles Temple. Protesting at a temple--I was shocked! What good does it do to protest at a temple? "They" were upset that members of the church donated money in support of prop 8. Hey, the Catholic church supported this too. And what about the other side of this--the no's on prop had all of Hollywood with deep pockets to donate to the cause.

I am totally in support of marriage only between a man and a woman.

Temple

Way back from the Clovis Rodeo we stopped by to see the temple. So dark. It's a mini temple and I have only been about 2 times.

Ships ahoy

This is way back from the spring/summer. A fun birthday party for Ry's friend. A beach pirate party-with hidden treasure, digging for sea creatures, painting star fish. A real fun day. Lots of yummy finger foods and cake. The weather could not have been better, which is really lucky for around here!

Rock on

A fun store in San Jose or Santa Clara that is full of guitars and drums and keyboards. You can try them all out--Mike bought Christina an amplifier to go with her guitar. I need earplugs!

It's a bird of a bake sale

Months ago our school had a fundraiser. This just wasn't any fundraiser. It was for the birds. Really it was! An oil tanker near the bay bridge crashed into a pillar and leaked tons of oil. The birds got all oily. So, our school had a bake sale for those oily birds. The money raised went to the foundation that cleans and sends the birds back all nice and feathery. We raised over $400. You go birds!

This was my contribution, oatmeal raisin cookies. I even tried to make them look pretty with label and a little bow.

Pinewood Derby

Pinewood derby-are you ready for some serious competition? And I am just talking about the parents.....Aaron designed this and Mike helped with the sawing and chiseling. The chiseling broke the car, but somehow it all worked out. Each year it is a new learning experience.

Welcome Alexander

He is here-way early! Born about 3 1/2 weeks early. Alexander JunTaro. Jun means pure in Japanese and Taro, not sure what that means, probably "sarcastic"-since that is Taro! j/k

What an adorable baby!!!!! Can't wait to see him in person!

Halloween Party

The primary was in charge of putting on our yearly Ward Halloween Party. The primary does the game booths and trunk or treat, the youth do a spook alley, and the activity committee does the food.

I was so tempted to cancel the trunk or treat. Last year not one person decorated thier car-and I had to beg people to go stand outside and pass out candy. And then people still told me they didn't want to. What?! No fun spirit!!!! So this year we had a cute orange folder go around the ward that said "I will decorate my car and pass out candy for trunk or treat"--it had a detachable piece of paper to take home as a reminder---this worked. I think we had 8-10 cars out there decorated.

The next improvement we made was to let the small children-3 and under go outsided for the first 3-4 minutes. Last year was chaotic, with the older kids running around like wild indians. Even the youth were way to zealous to "get to the candy". So this idea was a plus!

Another improvement was to have a microphone to announce when we had a round of limbo or cupcake walk. So much easier than me trying to yell it out in the gym--that was pathetic!

Here are the games we did this year:
Bounce-those big bouncy ball things with handles for the smaller kids. just two, with semi-enclosed areav
Extreme Webbing-shoot silly string toward the spider in the web.---a big hit!! This should be in a closed off area, with plastic table cloths covering everything to protect the floor, walls, ...
Nightmare Facials-face paint and temp tattoos
Hairy Scary Spider Toss-spider toss game from Oriental Trading
Spin art-one of those spin art toys-the kids added paint and glitter-messy, but another hit! You need to have an area for the art to dry.
Duck Swamp-ducks in a pond.
Limbo and cupcake walk-up on the stage-these games were only at certain times.-every 15 minutes or so.
A table with bags and stickers for the kids to decorate and put their prizes and candy in.

Food was hot dogs, pizza snacks, and veggies and dip, and yummy punch.

October 16-Happy Anniversay

We've been married for 15 years! Oh my gosh! It doesn't seem like it has been that many years, but the time rolls on.

We attended the temple to celebrate! The spirit was wonderful and I'm so grateful to be able to go since it has been a long time.

We were supposed to go out to eat, but we didn't have enough time for a nice restaurant. We usually go out to dinner to a "fancy" place. But it was great to go to the temple instead. So afterwards we went and got a burger in Berkley. We got out of the temple after 10 pm.

Steve Young Day

Mike and I went to the San Francisco 49er game on Sunday, October 5. This was the day that Steve Young's number was retired. I wore my #8 jersey to show my support!

We rode a bus to the stadium-it was full of old people. I guess old people don't tailgate. I still don't understand why we took the bus...some days I just don't understand my husband. It was nice not to deal with parking-but we almost missed the bus on the return trip!!!!

The weather was warm, so I didn't really need my 49er colors hat. We sat down in the first row pregame to watch the warm ups. Then stayed there til the ticket holders came which was end of 1st quarter. I ate garlic fries and a huge coke. Mike had philly cheese steak. I totally want to try to make those fries now. They sell them for $7! yikes!

Half time was all about Steve Young-everybody got a poster at the end of the game if you stood and fought the crowds to grab one.

Get those cards going

Good idea to get started on my Christmas cards. What, am I crazy? It is too early!!! But I really like to make the cards as easy as possible, and this just might do the trick.
jackandjillphotography.blogspot.com

Practicing for program

The primary is practicing for our sacrament program. It was a little crazy--just because we are doing the format in new way. The transitions are being worked out. We will practice one more time next week.

For the program cover I am using www.wordle.net. Type in all the children's names and the theme and it comes out in a fun layout.

And we're off

Soccer season is here! The picture day was today. I seriously think the whole city of Pacifica was there at some point in the day. Aaron's game got cancelled, Colleen played her first game and was goalie. Her team "purple thunder" won
5-1.
Christina met up with the South San Francisco Ward for a beach party. She hung out with two friends there. She did not have a game today.

Ryan got a haircut yesterday, by me-he looks different without all those blonde curls everywhere.

Mike went to the San Jose Giants baseball game to light fireworks. --oh, yeah, and he worked all day--oh how I wish he made overtime--just imagine all those extra hours. .....

out to dinner to "india"

okay, so we didn't go to India...but as close as we could get. Mike's friends from work invited us over for dinner-she is a wonderful cook, and she happens to be from India. The food was delicious. Curry vegetables and chicken, two kinds of rice and nan, mango lassi--it's all good.

Happy Birthday Grandma

Grandma turned 91 this summer. We celebrated in Carpinteria. This lady is amazing, I don't think she has every missed anyones birthday-ever! She always sends a card and some money or a little gift. And she has alot of grand and great grands. I have enough trouble just getting it together for my four kids!

Carpinteria

This town is what you'd think of if you want to go to the beach for a summer time get away. Lots of people on the warm sunny beach, the water is warm enough to swim in. The weather is warm, but not hot. You walk up and down the streets to get food or look at antiques. We have been there four times.
Santa Barbara is right up the road to the north, what a beautiful place. If I could live anywhere that would be one of my top cities.

Rinconada Pool

Go to this pool if you have little ones! We do not live too close to this, but it's worth the trip for the sun and the pool itself is so entertaining. The pool is shaped like a flower with five petals-each petal is a different activity. A slide, a mushroom, water squirting bikes. fun fun fun

The other pool has a diving board, a lap area, and an open area-plenty of space for the big kids to do their own thing too.

We all got sunburned to some degree. Next time do more sunscreen applications for sure!
(no picture-where is that camera?)

Birthday girl

This is a few months late ......

What kind of cake do you make a 12 year old? I told her it would be a surprise-so I chose a butterfly. Smile.

Bowling

The younger three and I went bowling to use their free bowling pass. This is cool-we could have bowled every day all summer for free, but in actuality, we bowled 4 times. Which was plenty for us I think. Once again preteen did not want to go, but I forced. We picked up a friend on the way spur of the moment and all was good.

By the 7th frame RC was ready to go home. With a little help he made it through all ten.

After a bag of skittles and a game of air hockey. Get all the fun in now before school starts.

Another baseball game

This time it is the San Jose Giants-minor league. It was Yahoo night at the stadium, so we got free tickets from work. Got there about 7:20 and found seats at the top with a good view of the home plate.
MC gave RC a whole cotton candy to himself. Then MC left and RC was on a sugar high. I felt like the umpire because I was in between four kids who like to argue during a baseball game. 9th inning couldn't come fast enough. After the game Yahoo sponsored the fireworks-MC didn't get there in time so he didn't light any fireworks off.
Stopped by 7-11 to get a slurpee on the way home.

San Francisco Giants

http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?evgroupid=0&userid=sfgiants&gallery_id=1216873&image_id=34
Took the train to the San Francisco Giants game. Playing the LA Dodgers. I saw alot of blue and white-lots of dodger fans. We had tickets and found out they were standing tickets. The kids were mad about that. I took RC to play in the kids area for a long time. About the 6 or 7 inning we found some empty seats and the girls found their friends to sit with. It all worked out fine. A really good and close game at the end- tied up and played an extra inning.

Six Flags

Get everyone in the car, even a preteen who doesn't want to go to a theme park!?! Allow extra time for that tantrum.

Arrive at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, with all kids excited for the rides, yeah, the hour drive proved to be good to put all in a good mood.

Ride as many rides as possible, the lines were not too bad on a Friday.

Put a three year old on "Tony Hawk's Big Spin"-he didn't know what hit him. But was smiles at the end. (He did pass the height requirement, obviously) I am still upset at my husband thinking about that.

Watch a huge whale do tricks--it's odd, don't you think? But an amazing animal.

Eat a funnel cake at closing time-we were all starving-yum. Then on to Round Table Pizza for dinner. oh, yeah, call ahead so the pizza is ready and they make a mistake --duh! we end up waiting for our 2nd pizza just as long or even longer than if we ordered there-"fast food" restaurant people drive me nuts!

Sew you think you can sew?

I remember why I don't sew as much as I'd like to. It's because everytime I make something, the pattern says you should make this size, and the end product is too big. So when making this dress, it has four darts luckily. When I finished it, I wanted it more fitted so I just re did the darts. It worked. I was wanting an Ann Taylor dress that had big huge red poppy print-but this was the closest thing I could find to big huge flowers. Cute for summer.

That dancing guy

Have you seen this video? Well, at Yahoo (hubby's work) this dancing guy was there. He travels all over the world and does this little dance at some most impressive landmarks. Now, Yahoo probably isn't a landmark, but somehow he came to Yahoo to make a new video. I wanted to go and watch them make a new dancing video with all the yahoos. But instead I took the boys and we were in the video too. Ha-funny. I don't know when the video will be posted but I guess he is making a new one. I can't wait to see myself dancing silly on film. Luckily it will be non closeups.
For the Q&A portion I asked him to tell us about his dancing moves..he said he doesn't have any moves and that is all he does. He said it was much more fun to have people dancing with him from all over the world than just dancing by himself.

Have you heard of this?
Do you have dancing moves?

Happy Birthday to my love!

I have to post about Mike's birthday. The backstory is that is travels to all the Hard Rock Cafe's that he can. I think he said he's been to about 70? wow, ok that is alot of rock n roll, not to mention souvenoiur tshirts and glasses. So in honor of that I made the cake into the logo. The sign in the background says "you rock" to go along with the "rock" theme. That is a foam board with red christmas light spelling the words. But I made a mistake - I did the words on the wrong side of the board, it was supposed to be on the other side, but I didn't figure that out until too late. See, I wrote the words on this grey side, poke the holes, and then realized that the words were backwards on the nice white side of the board. Now next time I will think before I poke, ha.

Do you have creative birthday celebrations?

Happy Birthday to me!

What do you do when your birthday falls on a Sunday? You go to church , duh! Well, I didn't tell people because it's weird. And I had ward council meeting before church so I just made muffins for that. That was my birthday present to myself and everyone who attended the meeting. suprise you get breakfast! yeah! I never eat breakfast when I have an early morning meeting cuz there is no time.

After church CMC had a meeting at the stake center for the youth council. Then we got home and a little later went out to dinner at TGI Friday's. oops-well at least we made it a family activity so we will be "forgiven". ok that's it. oh, and me hubby told the waiter it was my birthday so they sang the embarrassing song and gave me some ice cream. Isn't it fun to have the whole restaurant looking at you? ok just once a year.

On the way home we stopped at the beach. I love the beach. And it is so convenient to just jump out on the drive home. Nice. The sky was a little foggy already. We played a game of tag, AMC stubbed his toe really badly so that ended that and we went home.

All in all a good day!

A catholic yard sale

The local catholic church had a big yard sale today. You know it's catholic when everything has "your first communion" written on it. ok not everything but alot of stuff.

I did find RC a pair of shiny black church shoes and "children's place" pants -yes!
A crock pot, emroidery thread, thread, ipod accessories, keds baby shoes- brand new in the box.....all for 8.75.

The rest of the day was grocery shopping and getting AC and CAC new shoes to use this summer.

Singapore?

I am totally needing to refresh my geography skills. Mike went to Singapore for work and I am still trying to find it on my map. I know it is in the Indonesia and China area of the world. ok, ok I found it.

Then the kids are quizzing each other about the state capitals. I drew a blank on many of them! oh my gosh --how embarrassing! So AC pulls out the place mat/states and capitals to refresh us all-thank goodness. My brain is turning to mush this summer....that's what I always tell my kids when they are watching too much tv or internet or video games.

Do you know your capitals?
Is your brain mush this summer?

Rob Schneider and the band

Our school district has a music foundation sponsored by Rob Schneider. You know him from SNL and all those silly movies he is in with Adam Sandler. He contributes money so that our schools can have music programs, like band and choir.

He came to the all district band concert this year. Colleen got in the background of this picture-she plays the flute and was second chair, right in the front row. Rob signed autographs and took pictures with all who wanted one. He is great!

That is CAC to the side waiting for an autograph.

Girls camp fundraiser

A yard sale-for the girls to raise money for girls camp. Our garage is full of stuff that people from church brought over. We did this last year too. I got smart this time, I have a salvation army truck scheduled to pick up all the left overs on Monday.

We made over $400-with only three YW working, they will all have plenty to put towards camp. Glad that is over, and I don't want to do it next year.

Losing your marbles!

Primary has been a little out of control lately. The constant talking, interrupting, getting out of seats and wandering around....ok, so in an effort to have a more enjoyable lesson we are using the marble jar.

If the kids are noisy or doing anything they aren't supposed to do, the we start taking marbles out of the "CTR" jar and putting them in another. On a given Sunday (which we probably won't tell them when it is) they could earn a "surprise" if there are more "ctr" marbles than in the other jar.

This worked! The kids picked up on it immediately. I think the visual and being able to hear those marbles plink down in the jar gets their attention. I don't know how long it will last, but for now we are going to use this so the leaders won't "lose our marbles" ha!

Cream puffs

Thanks Betty, Crocker that is. I made cream puffs to take to a baby shower. They came out lovely. The recipe from Betty Crocker book, sounds complex, but it really isn't that bad. Time consuming to make your own homade custard filling-but it is delicious.

I put little pink flags that said, "it's a girl" on each one just for a bit of decoration.

Clovis Rodeo

If you have never been to a rodeo, you are missing out! I know, it's a lot country, but it is fun! Where else can you see cowgirl queens, cowboys wearing pink-tough enough to wear pink, big ol' bulls, and of course eat a tri-tip steak sandwich. The Clovis Rodeo. a big yee-haw everybody!

Emerson Drive was the concert after the rodeo-you would know this band from their song "Moments". That's the only song I recognized. At the end of the concert they rocked out by playing some Led Zeplin, that was cool after so much fiddlin'.

Lego Temple

I was reading the Friend magazine, saw how someone had made a replica of an LDS temple out of legos. I started talking about how fun that would be to do in Primary for sharing time-except, how would I ever figure out how to make a temple. I am not good at lego structures! That's right-I am no engineer. Well, leave it up to Mike to figure out how to make the Oakland Temple out of legos! He's cool like that. :)

Of course it is as close as he could get using what we had on hand. But I absolutely love it! I took it apart a few days ago and made an instruction sheet for myself on how to rebuild it, because I know I could not do it from memory.

Have you ever made a mini temple?
Are you good at legos?

M&M gone wild cherry

I tried these limited editions cherry M&M's. Pretty tasty. My husband loves cherry chocolate combination so I thought I should definately try these. They are bigger sized candies, just don't buy them at 7/11 where they are overpriced. Still you have to try.

Red Velvet Birthday

Ry had a bday and requested a red cake. Oh yes, an excuse to make red velvet cake. I pulled out my recipe book and found one from a magazine I have been wanting to make. If you've never made this cake before it takes a whole bottle of red food color, so make sure you have some. I had to make a trip to the store to get some. The cake turned out red and delicious.

Discovery Museum

This is Ryan in the look out spot

A group of gals from church went to the Discovery Museum in Sausalito. It is situated right by the Golden Gate Bridge. We lucked out and had a beautiful clear day. What great views of the bridge and San Francisco. The museum is a hands on place for children. I've never been there before and was so glad that my friend Charity invited us.

Old Fashioned Buttermilk Brownies

I made the brownies (that I read about in the BYU magazine) on Sunday afternoon after church. Here is the recipe:

Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Fudge Brownies

By Erin Renouf Mylroie (BA ’95)

3/4 cup butter4 ounces good quality unsweetened‚ chocolate (I use Baker’s in the orange box.)2 cups granulated sugar3 eggs1 tablespoon vanilla1/2 cup buttermilk1 1/2 cups flour, plus 2 tablespoons flour, divided1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large microwaveable bowl, combine butter and chocolate. Melt butter and chocolate in microwave on high at 1-minute intervals, stirring in between. Do not let mixture sizzle. When mixture is completely melted and smooth, immediately stir in sugar; continue stirring until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla and buttermilk. Add 1 1/2 cups flour.
3. Toss chocolate chips with remaining 2 tablespoons flour in a small bowl; add to batter.
4. Pour into greased 9-by-13-inch baking dish and bake for 28 to 33 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center has just a few fudgy crumbs. Let cool for 30 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar.

These brownies are very rich and chocolatey! But I am glad I tried the recipe. I have a whole notebook full of recipes that I want to try. I have been going through that notebook and trying new recipes that I've wanted to try, but just don't get around to it.

Do you have a file full of recipes?

Apron is here

I was happily surprised when UPS left a package at my door. My apron exchange is here! I eagerly ripped it open- how lovely! Thank you to Whitney!T his was a fun idea, I hope Abby does it again sometime.

Woodstock?!?!

I just could not believe it when my sister told me about this book. It is called the Wednesday Letters, by Jason Wright. This fictional story takes place in Woodstock, VA. The story is fictional, but this is a real town.The author researched Woodstock and used that for his book. This little town is where I grew up. I was stunned that someone would find my little hometown, out of all the small towns across the country and then use it as a backdrop for his story. I had to read it. Sure enough the author mentions all the wonderful features you'd know about if you've been there. I loved being reminded of a place I called home in my youth. A good read with a mix of love story, mystery and humor.

Wright is the popular LDS author of Christmas Jars, which I have yet to read. And I found out the he loved Woodstock so much after researching that he moved there, image that y'all!

Food Network and BYU Alum

I watched Food Network the other night and saw the show about the challenges with real people. Have you seen it? The one I saw was about chocolate cake. http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_133793,00.html

Well, I thought one lady looked familiar. Then I remember that I read this article http://magazine.byu.edu/g/?act=view&a=2067, from my BYU Alumni magazine about a gal who was on Rachel Ray with her brownie recipe. I tore out the page from my magazine and put the recipe in my file. It's the same lady that was on the show! Good article, haven't tried the recipe yet but it is on my list for this weekend.

Thrift Finds

Went to an estate sale and found a few items. I really like these cornbread pans. It reminds me of going to House of Prime Rib House in San Francisco, they serve cornbread like this. I wanted the old looking measuring spoons for decoration. I have some old cookie cutters that I will put with these to display. I also found some pretty cards and pretty pastel envelopes to match. When I find stationery it is so exciting, I don't know why, I just like it. I think I spent $2.50, I love thrifty finds!

Primary Quarterly Activity

This morning we had our primary activity. Mary Poppins came to visit and teach us about service. Our great secretary dressed as MaryPoppins. She was wonderful with music and an accent and props. We had three stations:
1. Spring clean-a story told about how Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley had to spring clean his house
each year when he was young. Then the children went to the primary room to scrub the
chairs.
2. Next we made service coupons for family members. Each child made up to four coupons to do
something nice for someone else. They colored and decorated the coupons with stickers.
3. Last station was to make a card for two of our missionaries out in the field, and a condolence
card for a family that lost a child.

Each child made a basket at the beginning of the activity and received a candy service flower for each act of service they did. These were made out of construction paper and a starburst candy. The baskets were made out of cardstock.

This is the apron I made for the swap.

Apron exchange

I agreed to be part of this apron exchange. I thought, why not? Thanks go to http://projectsforyournest.blogspot.com for the idea. I love the ideas she has.