Imparting my wisdom

I have another addiction.
Shocker I know
but yes I can freely admit this one.
I love crossword puzzles.
I have always chosen to do my crossword puzzles with pen. Makes you commit to your answers whole hearted. None of this iffy pencil in the answers for this girl.
Since I no longer get a daily newspaper (they're all full of ugliness, and liberal agendas) I have another way to fulfill my daily habit.
Online gaming!
Oh the joy!

This is actually a good habit don't you think? It keeps the mind sharp which in turn will hopefully prevent the onset of dementia or Alzheimer's.
But all that has nothing what so ever to do with the reason I started this post.

While doing a crossword the other day I came across a new word (to me)
A fabulous word
One that makes me all fuzzy and warm inside every time I think of it
and especially when I say this word aloud.
I can see you sitting on the edge of your computer chair just waiting to delight in my new found wisdom.
So here it is

KERFUFFLE

Fabulous isn't it!
Did you smile on the inside when you said it?
I did
Now I suppose that if I lived on another continent this word would not be so new to me. It's mainly a British term. But it's origins are probably from Scottish Gaelic .
Oh, yes I know much about this word now.
You see I was so intrigued by the sound of KERFUFFLE (hee-hee-hee) that I simply had to google it.
My dictionary is a 1968 edition and so is lacking so many *splendiforous words. (*another word that makes you smile to say)
KERFUFFLE (hee-hee-hee): disturbance or fuss.
Example of using it in a sentence
The royal scandal caused quite a KERFUFFLE (hee-hee-hee) on Fleet Street.

How divine.
To think that I have gone so many years without this word.
How did I ever manage?
No more.
From here on out my children will cease to argue!
Now they will simply have a KERFUFFLE. (hee-hee-hee)
Isn't that wonderful?
How could a mommy ever possibly lose her cool and yell at her children when they are simply kerfuffling? (Do you like my own personal adaptation of the word?)
I am a new woman
Who knew that learning new words could produce such joy in my life?
I should search the dictionary daily for further knowledge and joy!
Then again...
Maybe not.

It may not kill me...

I have an illness.

No, it is not terminal.

It is however hereditary.

At least I am pretty sure it is because my sisters seem to suffer from this same genetic mutation.

While it will never kill me, there is no cure!

I will suffer from this illness for my entire life.

It's called

movielinerecitation

I am not making this up!

Ok, maybe I made up the name of this illness.

But the symptoms are very real.

With it comes the ability to have complete conversations by using only lines from movies.
Along with the ability to verbally replay complete movie scenes inside your head.

Although I probably would not say that I Suffer from this disorder.

Sometimes it's nice while sitting and doing nothing, to enjoy a movie inside my head.

Complete strangers may wonder why I am smiling sometimes. But seeing as they are complete strangers, why should I care what they think!

There is one drawback to this disease.

It is coming to the realization that perhaps watching TV with my 6 year old should no longer be an option in my life.

The reason for this decision

While sitting at my computer the lines running through my head.....





"CHUM IS FUM"



Yep.

It's a problem.

Society's Evils

Listen

Did you hear that?

Shhhhh, there it is again.

Suuuuuzeeeeeeeeee

You heard it too?

What is it? you ask.

Oh , it is pure evil calling my name!

Daily

Tempting me

Sometimes quietly whispering my name

Other days it refuses to be ignored and taunts me continually with it's call.

Does this evil entity have a name?

Yes!

It's name is

You see, this den of sin just opened right by my house.

It refuses to fade quietly into the background with the other shopping temptations that reside around it.

No, this little gem of iniquity has bright orange flag banners that continually whip and wave in the wind. It is those flags that produce the sound of my name!

At least I think that is what they are saying.

Inside there lies the most tempting seductress known to man (or perhaps it's woman) kind.

Soft

Oh

So

Fresh

Sweetened and fried bread coated in maple frosting goodness all warm and inviting and even more flavors and colors and delights to tempt the visual and taste senses! (that part was to be read quickly in the run on sentence way)

I shall resist you!

I will learn to avert my head when passing your gloriously tempting yumminess.

In this war between good and evil,

ahem

I mean

In this war between weight loss and continual chunkiness

I shall emerge Victorious!

You may have your way with other girls

Using them up

and spitting them out with thicker waistlines and rounder faces

But not this girl!

Mission missives

Monday is a grand day!
I know, most people spend the weekend in mortal fear and trembling, dreading that ever looming day known as
MONDAY!
Back to work
Back to school
Regular workouts
Up before the sun
Yes, it is all of those things.
But it is also "P Day".
I can hear some of you asking "Suzee, what is "P Day?"
In the land of "Full Time Missionary Service" there is a lovely day of the week. It is the one day where missionaries do not need to put on their white shirt and tie. They get to dress as regular people and commence in the activities of regular people. Yes these activities are still limited. But they do have the time to clean their apartment, shop for groceries, play a little basketball if they want. Most importantly, this is the day they head off to the local library, Internet cafe, or whatever and write home!
Yes, this is a day we moms look forward to with much anticipation. (I imagine there are quite a few cute girls out there who also approach this day with same level of anticipation, albeit for only slightly different reasons.)
How I enjoy those letters. Glad to know that my son is safe, that he is working hard, that he his growing and learning from the trials he faces.
The best part is those small quips thrown in his letters.
Those little things that make me smile and sometimes even laugh out loud!
They are the little bits that remind me of his sense of humor,
his very quick wit!
Now that I have piqued your curiosity, let me share a few of them with you.

"On Thursday night we had exchanges with the ward. I ended up going with the High Priest group leader to one of his home teaching families to give a blessing. It was in a little town about 30 min from Kokomo so that was about all we got to do. We ended up back at the church 15 min before Elder _____ got back so we were talking and he told me that it was his opinion that our time would be best spent in trying to re-activate the inactives of the ward. I just said ok rather than tell him that that was his job."

"Our ward here loves the missionaries and loves to feed them and buy them anything they need but they aren't so big into missionary work. A few weeks ago the ward mission leader wanted to get splits on Thurs nights going again. He asked if anyone was available and willing to go with us during priesthood opening exercises and all of a sudden there were some really cool patterns to look at on the floor and it was dead quiet."

"I bought some arch supports last week at Walmart (Elder _____needed stuff for athletes foot, I don't think he changes his socks enough). They were only like $4 and its been a really awesome use of $4 so far."

"We met a baptist youth minister while tracting on Sat. He invited us in and basically bashed us for 10 min. They always say they want to have a discussion but they never let you explain your beliefs or how what they say or believe about us is wrong. In the next life I will find him and teach him the truth. When people let you in while tracting there are usually 2 reasons. The fist is so they can bash and tell you that you are going to Hell the second is when its an old person or couple who are lonely and let you in to talk for a little while. We got that on Sat. afternoon as well. It was funny to get both on the same day."

"Elder _____ got another flat tire on Sat. This is 2 in one week. Luckily we had to walk only a mile to the car. We met a crazy guy on they way. His religious views are kinda strange but it was funny seeing Elder _____ try and talk with him. I saw he was crazy about 2 sec after he started talking. It took Elder _____5 min to cut bait and say goodbye/get out of there."

"I don't think I told you this but 2 weeks ago we had our district meeting in Logansport. The night before I was talking to our district leader about how to get there with the least amount of miles. He asked me if I know where Big Daddy's is (topless bar). I started cracking up laughing and asked if it was wrong if I said yes. He was using the bar to reference a diagonal road that leaves town and connects to a highway to Logansport. He didn't know the name of the road but the bar is pretty big and hard to miss. It was really funny though."

"We finally bought a fly swatter last week (we have lots of gnats and baby flys). My kill count is pretty high..."

This is a pretty fair representation of the kinds of things I'm talking about.
I do believe that with 1 year and 8 months to go there will be many more, which will lead to future mission missive posts!
What joy!
I am sure you will sit in eager anticipation as you await those posts.

Mission Marriage & More

Things have been pretty crazy around here! No I did not fall of the face of the earth, though at times these past few months I might have wished that I had.
For starters my second born and number one baby boy received his mission call!

Here he is preparing to open his call.

You are hereby called to serve in the....

Indianapolis, Indiana Mission

Reporting to the Provo MTC on May 26th.

We were all very excited for him. This meant lots and lots to do! Extra immunizations, multiple shopping trips, and the Temple!

Here he is with his siblings, grandma, and wait...

who is the extra guy in this picture?

Somewhere in the process of preparing for our missionary to leave my oldest daughter got ENGAGED! The two of them started with ideas for a fall wedding but somehow that date kept moving up. It became the end of Aug. Ultimately being moved for a final time and scheduled for the 23rd of July!

My wonderful hubby worried about the mission taking a back seat to wedding plans and so insisted that I NOT do ANY wedding planning until we returned from dropping our son at the MTC. I did insist on completing one task right away! We bought a wedding gown. Please! Can you imagine trying to find a dress and worry about alterations with less than 2 months to spare?

So we swapped vehicles with my mother in law (is she great or what) to insure we had plenty of leg room, piled the majority of the family in, and headed off to UT.

We had a great time, visiting Temple Square in Salt Lake, seeing family and some of our bestest friends!

Then the day arrived. I tried to be brave.

I tried to be strong.

I willed myself not to cry.

Ha! We parked across the street so we could get a picture in front of the sign. A very nice man who was directing the flow of families informed me of the number of missionaries reporting that day (it was a lot! Drawing a blank right now...) and then said to me "Mom, thank you for loaning us your son." Whew! I about lost it then.

Hang tough.

Photo op with the family, minus #1 baby girl.

My super handsome missionary!

We walked back to the car to say our goodbyes before driving through the loop.

Well, you know what they say about good intentions...

Yes,I cried.

Even now, writing about this, I want to cry all over again!

I miss him terribly!

But he is exactly where I want him to be! And more importantly he is doing our Father's work and it is where He wants him to be. So I gladly relinquish him for next 2 years, knowing the great man he will be when he returns home!

Speaking of returning home..

Can you say BUSY?

Oh yes I was!

Plan, plan, plan.

Design, and plan some more!

Some of the centerpieces I came up with.
They were all topped with lampshades and then

lights were added the night of the reception!

This is my gorgeous daughter and the beautiful wedding gown she chose!

Getting married in July in Arizona, well let me tell you it is not the best idea!

However when two people are in love I guess temperature is the last thing on your mind while planning your wedding!

We had a scheduled photo shoot with the photographer at 5 am four days before the wedding.

Why?

Because their sealing session was at 10:30am.

Pictures after at 11:30 in July? Ha!

The pics with her hair down were all done at the early photo shoot.

I love this one! Love the way he framed it!

The day arrived.

Being in the sealing room with my baby girl was an amazing experience!

Fabulous temple sealer!

Wait

What's this?

The weather?

Wow!

Clouds! Sprinkles off and on!

The cloud cover made for better temperatures and fabulous lighting for pictures!

Who would have thought that pictures at noon in July

could look this good!

Isn't she beautiful!

Oh yes! This is what my children do whenever a camera

is pointed at them!

The cake was fabulous! Her color choices made for

super great decorations!

I really do believe that we are the first people to ever roll

a keg into the Stake center! LOL

Yup, we had beer at the reception!

Ok, so it was Rootbeer!

On-Tap! It was de-lish!

We brought a flat version of our missionary to the reception

and had some fun taking pictures with him!

Just a shot where you can get an idea of what the tables looked like.

We had a "Candy Bar"

And the bride and groom chose the menu.

PIZZA!

I know this was a super long post, but now you know why I haven't blogged for so long!

I do believe I am at last rested...sort of.

However I seem to be missing my witticism...

If you find it could you please return it post-haste?

Nash Rambler

While driving around his morning my mind started wandering
as it tends to do when I leave it unattended.

I started to remember my first experience with driving a manual transmission vehicle.
I think my little sister and I were about 18.
We had outgrown the normal church dances that were held every weekend for the youth at church, and quickly moved on to the dances for the young singles that were held at the ASU institute building.
This became a problem since it meant driving to other side of the valley, and we had no car!
There was only one vehicle available at our house at that time.
It was a very ugly, primer blue, 1964 (I think) Nash Rambler!
No, it did not look as nice as this lovely picture I pulled off the internet!

Besides, this one is just a model.
The largest obstacle that prevented us from driving this car was the fact that it was a stick shift.
Oh no people! This is not the kind of stick shift we all know today!
No! This was a three speed on the column!
I remember the day we finally approached our Dad about learning to drive this ugly thing.
My Dad was a truck driver.
Did I ever tell you that?
He drove big semi's, so to him this was a piece of cake.
Without blinking an eye, he reached in his pocket, pulled out the keys, and tossed them to me.
Then he said (as near as I can remember) "Knock yourselves out. Go start driving it around the block. You'll figure it out."
Do you remember the first time you learned to drive a stick shift?
Ahhh, good times!
We jerked and stalled our way around our neighborhood until we could finally drive that car well enough to get out on the highway.
I remember what it was like to have to stop at a red light.
The clutch on this old beast was HARD!
It was like holding down a huge weight!
Being a novice you didn't dare just put the car in neutral for fear you wouldn't be able to get it back into first when the light turned green.
Instead you sat there holding in the clutch until your leg would start to shake with the effort!
Then the light would turn green and you had to pray you still had enough strength left in your leg to slowly let out that clutch so as not to stall!
One day I was driving the beast so I could go and see a friend.
The light turned green.
I tried to go
There was this terrible sound as I rolled forward a few feet, and then came to a dead stop.
Laying in the road behind me was the drive shaft!

Looking at pictures of Ramblers online I realized we were so Retro, before retro was cool.
Can't decide if that makes us uncool, or just ahead of our time.

So where exactly was I going with this post?
I can hear you wondering
I was thinking about the unlimited power and control that comes with driving a manual transmission vehicle!
Driving around in my beastly SUV and I started to think maybe it's almost time.
Time to get out of the family vehicle.
Time to get something fast!
Something sporty!
Something with a manual transmission!
I am the master of my own destiny!
Speeding down the road with the top down!

Is that a cop I see in the rear view mirror?

Maybe I'd better just put this little fantasy on hold.

What's Happened to me?

Once upon a time there was a blogger.
She was witty
and creative
and full of ideas
and life!
Daily I look at this poor, sad, dejected blog.
I rack my mind for an idea.
I've even tried beating my head against a wall!
Ok, not really.
Sadly, I find nothing but a black void.
A deep chasm of nothingness.
I believe if you were to yell 'Hello'
You would hear an echo.
Did you hear it?
Somewhere
buried deep inside
is the desire to
Create
To feed my soul!
Where has it gone?

I think I gave it all to
FaceBook.

At Last!

I did it!

Yes I did!

Me!

The Queen of Procrastination!

Master of make do.

The lady with a 1000 unfinished projects!

I lit a fire under my butt last week and actually took this chair, that I started back March, from looking like this:

to

TaDa! This!

In all fairness to myself, while working on this chair, the staple gun died. I was unable to finish it. Also I had to return "Ricky's compressor"! Ooh. did that sound bitter? Because it tasted an awful lot like sour grapes to me! But that, my dear friends, is a completely different story.
Any who. One day last week, I loaded the chair in the back of my truck and hauled it my friend Pat's house. I used her compressor and staple gun to finish the remaining side and enlisted her help to sew my cushion. I was actually afraid to tackle that part by myself.
Am I patting myself on the back?
Yes!
Yes I am!
For those of you who want to know, yes my mom was with me in spirit while worked on this chair. Yes, she is proud of me. But, she also said I didn't do it right. Hey, I told her, if she wanted perfection, she should have been here to do it for me!
Oh, there is still room for you to pat my back as well!
Hee hee hee