Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Halloween 2018

Being that it is NaNoWriMo (National November Write More Month) I thought it'd be pretty cool to resurrect my favorite medium of late, the blog.

And yes, I know it's been years. But whatever.

Halloween was last night and was, as usual in the house, a big fat deal. we had parties and face paint and chili and so so so much sugar. Here's a quick rundown:
Our Halloween House this year


Pre-playgroup party!

Cutest little pup out there
-Costumes:
Noah was Bingo from Puppy Dog Pals. Unfortunately, he got a little sick of wearing his costume by party #3, so he was a lion on Halloween. Charlotte was Ariel -in-a-poofy-dress- that was required to say every time. And Mr Joel was Mickey Mouse until he got sick of that and switched to Sherrif Woody from Toy Story
- We kicked things of with a church playgroup Halloween party. Actually, out of all the things I stressed about for Halloween, this one was one of the crazier ones. We invited Noah's friends from church, and I was super panicked that no one would show. But 4 moms came with their kids, and it turned out great. We did a spooky scavenger hunt, where I would say a rhyme and they would run to find the next clue. We played halloween bingo, which was super fun, and tried to do a cake walk.
- The ward trunk or treat was next. I bought Rob a gorilla costume on clearance at Sam's club, and fund myself a hip and happening banana costume at Saver's. I don't know if it was possible for Charlotte to be more excited about the trunk-or-treat. She was a party animal, running back and forth, dancing, grabbing cookies, and accumulating a ton of candy. Noah wasn't so sure about trick or treating, although he's my little Halloween kid at heart. He has spent the past month singing Halloween songs, dressing up with mom, and yelling "happy Halloween!" to people at the grocery store. Usually I try to get us involved with making chili or decorating a car and handing out candy-- this year we just showed up and it was really so nice.
Dancing it up at the ward trunk-or-treat

Love this crazies! The best picture we got

Mickey!

At Noah's preschool Halloween party

One little puppy is pouting, pouting.....
Noah's preschool party was next up. This was his 3rd time wearing the costume and he was beginning to get a little sick of mom taking photos (what....?)

The crazy
Also, we had just some crazy things pop in here. Like,:
-I ended up having to make 6 dozen cookies for a bake sale, only to have my dog eat them! (Well, ate about half and trampled the rest.)
-I volunteered to supply the pumpkins for Charlotte's class party, only to get the last 7 pumpkins in Arizona ( you know I'm exaggerating here, but a week before Halloween and I can't find 7 small pumpkins? And I have to go to 4 stores? And I find them at CVS??? Come on now....). But after supplying the pumpkins, one got too moldy and we had to throw it out. I completely forgot about being short one pumpkin until the day of Halloween, and then Here I am going store to store looking for ONE MORE ELUSIVE PUMPKIN. After hours of this, I just grabbed a bag of mini squash looking things and told the teacher if she needed to Charlotte could have the  "bumpy" pumpkin. The joke was on me, as Charlotte refused to let anyone carve the pumpkins her mom had lost her mind for. So, yeah.
-We had an HOA party last week and out of nowhere I decided to use the PA system to invite our entire subdivision to a chili cookoff party in our culdesac.

Then I had to tell Rob that WE were throwing a chili cookoff party in the culdesac for our whole subdivision.

Good thing he loves me.

 The Official Winter Chili Cook Off on Chama Drive
-I maintained a modicum of common sense and resolved to make this chili party bare bones. Of course, we don't do "bare bones" all that well, but I stuck with canned chili, store bought cookies, donuts, and lots of treats.
-I took Charlotte and we went to a lady in the next neighborhood who does airbrush face painting! It was so cool, but it took longer than I thought, and by the time we got back Rob as sweating bullets, having been the one to set up all the tables, the movie screen, and start the chili all by himself. But we pulled it all together!






Sunday, April 15, 2018

Requiem 1 and 2

It turns out, if you want to be a writer these days you need to actually WRITE. And I haven't been doing that for about, oh, the last four years.

My life got a little complicated, you could say.

REQUIEM I
I was spurred back to my blogging days by the events of this past weekend. For those of you who don't know, my grandfather passed away and we spent all of last week in Utah attending his funeral and spending time with family. One of the things he loved most about me was my writing, and I took that to heart.

His death was not unexpected, but rather welcomed. A long battle with cancer had left him weak and depressed, and barely the man he once was.

So I chatted with him, just he and I. Driving in the car. Me talking to the space above my head, trying not to break as I told him how I would miss him.

First, we laughed about the hatchet job I did on the closing hymn. A solemn piece written about the existence of our eternal father in heaven, it could have been the hallmark of a great send off. Unfortunately for us all, I was the organist. Those in attendance were probably clamoring to trade places with my dear Grandpa in the casket. Never has a song sounded so painful.
Panicked and flustered, I pushed several wrong buttons on the organ, landing us all in "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" territory. 4 verses later, we were done, and I have never been so embarrassed in my life.

If this conversation had really played out, the very first thing he would have said to me is "I didn't know you played the organ!" And I would have joked "Obviously, I can't!".... and then he would ask me about the kids and how did they do on the drive up.

I will miss his positivity. His 100's and smiley faces. I will miss his stories about airplanes and military exercises and trains.

----
REQUIEM II
I did not think I'd be back here so soon. I had prayed (we all had) that my grandmother would rally after the death of my grandfather. That she would somehow, miraculously, remember all of us, be able to eat and drink, that she would be able to go on walks with us outside-- she and us and her new bionic hip. I had petitioned the Lord frequently that she would get to travel to Arizona and see the lives we have built here, influenced by her.

As you can probably guess, that did not happen.

My grandma Blanch was a woman to be reckoned with. She loved fiercly, was loyal to those close to her, and had her own strong opinions.

I will miss all those things. I wish just once I could:
*Go shopping with her. Preferably to JC Penney back in 1997 when she bought me an emerald green dress that "went beautifully" with my eyes and hair.
*Go to Lagoon with her. I have grand memories of my younger years and time at Lagoon with my grandparents. We would spend lots of time in Pioneer Village, and my grandparents would tell me stories about the brave souls who journeyed here during the 1800's. I inherited her love of those great people, the pioneers of our faith, and our state.

*See my kids one last time. Oh, my Joel and Charlotte and Noah, who will never know the fabulous woman she was. She loved them, even in her last few months when she couldn't recall who they were or why they were visiting.

The week before my grandma died I went with my mom to her care facility. We had gotten a call that "Jace" couldn't be wakened. Unresponsive and pale faced, my grandma appeared to be close to the end. My dear sweet aunt Celia was already there, crying. After they told my mom what was going on, she marched on over to my grandma and said "Mom? Are you all right? Can you wake up?" Grandma opened her eyes, annoyed. "Why does everyone keep asking me that? I'm just resting my eyes!"

We all laughed, and she told us she felt fine, just tired.

And then something happened, that I will always be grateful for.

I took her hand, and talked quietly to her. I told her how I loved her big brown eyes, just as she used to tell me. I told her the story of how I, her grandaughter Kristen, was born with brown eyes and she was had been so proud because I had Frank's eyes (her father).

I apologized. I told her how sorry I was that I didn't tell her more often how much I appreciated her and loved her. Without my grandmother, I would have never finished the math classes that completed my degree. They came to so many of my recitals and events as a high schooler that I became a bit surly and snarky, resenting the obligation to go talk to them after every event. Regretfully, I'll never be able take back my eye rolls, my sarcastic attitude.

I told her how wonderful she was. How she filled my life with pink delicacy and appreciation for flowers and lace and glass perfume bottles and a good piece of chocolate. I reminded her how she had taught me to always appreciate antiques, how she taught me to have "classic style".

But they loved me anyway.

My grandma Jaciel Blanch died a week later. What I wouldn't give to have that problem now.