The Murder Mystery Party

So we were invited to a Murder Mystery Party. There were eight couples invited to dinner for Ruby Tuesday. But when we got to the party, we found out that she was murdered and we had to figure out who did it. We were all suspects because she had ruined our lives in some way. Spencer was playing the part of Peter Paul (as in Peter, Paul, and Mary, who wrote "Puff the Magic Dragon"). His character, from what we could see from on-line photos, was a conservative sixties dresser with a goatee. So we bought Spencer some glasses and shoes at Goodwill and he colored on the facial hair. Nice.

This is the only picture that I remembered to take of myself. My character was Jalopy Joplin (as in Janice Joplin). From what I could discern from pictures, she was a extreme hippie with a smoking addiction. I bought some ugly glasses and pants, and this ugly blouse at Goodwill.
I wore no make-up and didn't do my hair.
Throughout the evening we were given clues to who the real murderer was. Supposedly, Ruby Tuesday stole my boyfriend and my career. I totally thought I was the murderer and I voted for myself at the close of the night. But it turned out the murderer was Trixie Dickie Nixon, a character running for U.S. President. Ruby ruined his campaign.



Here are some more suspects that came to the party in costume.


Thank you MK and Ryan for hosting such a fun party!

More smiles...

The camera hasn't been able to catch the true color of Maren's eyes. They are a beautiful blue. I think she got Grammy DeLane's eyes. Her best stunt; that's hard work.

Happy 30th Anniversary, Mom and Dad! Sorry this is late! We just figured out how to do these slides.

We wish we could have been present at the party this summer. We never could figure out how to make a DVD for you. Hopefully this makes up. We love you!

splash park fun

a few neighborhoods in our area have little splash parks and we enjoy them

Guess what is in McKay's mouth

No, i do not encourage this. When's the last time you've snacked on purple onion?

Tile and Paint

So we have to sell our house, but to sell it we have to make it look good. I hate that we have to fix up a house to sell it. Why didn't we do all the fixing when we first moved in so we could enjoy it? I can't tell you. I guess I didn't foresee leaving it in a year. We put tile in the kitchen and bathroom. What do you think?

BEFORE: This is our yucky linoleum that is so hard to keep clean.

AFTER: Ta-da! We love it!

We did a brick-style. Doesn't it look great? I'm so happy because I don't have to clean the white ugly linoleum anymore. I so wish we would have done this sooner.

We also had the down stairs painted. Here's what happened. When we moved in, I painted the kitchen PURPLE! What was I thinking? I thought it looked so good! I like bold colors, OK? I liked it...UNTIL I finally had it repainted for resell and then I realize how much better it looks now.

Yay for a new kitchen. I'm enjoying it while it lasts. I wish we could plop our Texas home in the middle of California. That would make life a little easier for us right now.

Yes, we are moving to California

The rumors are all true. We are excited to go back to our roots. Actually, I don't think we could handle Turlock or Madera after living in San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston. We need a library, a mall, a Target, a Ross, an Ann Taylor Loft, a Cheese Cake Factory, a temple within ten to twenty minutes away. I have decided that I like big citites. They are so conveniant. So we are going to FRESNO!! We are so excited...and a little afraid of the unknown.


I am willing to give this a go for many reasons which I will gladly lay before you:



1. Spencer has the right to work wherever he is most happy and I will support him in this as long as he can work hard and provide a good living for our family. And I totally trust him and know he is more than capable.

2. I love California. I remember when I was 10 and moved from Virginia how much I hated it because it didn't have trees, like on the eastern US. But CA grew to be my home and there really is no place like home.

3. The central valley is a great location because you are two hours away from everything wonderful; mountains, ocean, big cities.

4. The fresh fruit ...need I say more?

5. Spencer will have his own work schedule and can spend more time with the family. He can also serve more at church. He's excited to sign up for everything in Priesthood, just like his Dad.

6. We will be close to family!

7. We have prayed about it and both feel at peace and excited. But we do realize it won't be a piece of cake.



Do you know whatwe will miss the most?

Good bye, beautiful. You were so good to us.

Oh, and by the way, IF this does not work out the way we plan, we will just move on and find some other exciting adventure to do. Just in case anyone thinks we're crazy, we do have back-up plans, but we hope that this will go well.

If you are ever in California, Spencer is dying to take you river rafting! This is what he is most excited about!

Names

My friend, Mikael, blogged about what her name meant. Her name meant "visually addictive". So, of course I wanted to find out what my name meant and I was sorely dissapointed.

Sarah H. --[noun]: A person who likes to steal tins of tuna
'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

LAME! I mean, I like tuna, but I don't want to be defined as a person who steals tins of tuna!


Spencer H. --[adjective]: Similar to butter in texture and appearance
I can't wait to tell Spencer his texture and appearance is supposedly similar to BUTTER!

I guess he could pass for a stick of Land O' Lakes.

Spencer will be forever envious of McKay's meaning:
McKay H. --[noun]: A human transformer (Robot in disguise)

But Maren's is the absolute truth to what she is:
Maren H. --[noun]: A deadly strain of projectiile vomit ...
she has reflux and it is disgusting.

So, what does your name mean?

SMILEY!

Maren is smiling now! This is the ultimate precious moment for me. I love it. She's two months old now and I took her to the doctor and she weighs 10 pounds 10 ounces. She is only 21 inches long (50% weight and 10% height).

She has a little birthmark that should go away through time. When people are looking at Maren, lots of people tell me, "your daughter has something on her hand". I always tell them that I know and that it's just a birthmark. "Oh, I thought it was a marker or something," they say. Well, it is bright red.

Taylor's little Creature Part II

Before I tell the following story, I apologize for keeping my blogs centered on Taylor's silly creature-catching adventures. But it just tickles me how fond Taylor is of these little animals.

We went to a Mexican restaurant tonight for dinner, because a realtor was SUPPOSED to show the house, but it turned out to be a no-show. That is really frustrating, by the way. You get a phone call that they are coming to look at your house in one hour. These could be the ones to buy your house. You have ONE HOUR to make the house spotless, get the kids looking presentable, change the diapers, figure out where you are going to take them, and fit in nursing in all that. So I say "grrrrr"! to the no-shows.

Anyway, we are at the restaurant, enjoying our delicious food, while Taylor and McKay are off playing--it's an outdoor restaurant with a little play area for kids. Taylor finds a frog in the dirt and informs me.

I think, "oh, great, we're going to have withdrawals when it's time to let it go". She catches it and comes to show it to me. It's not the usual little baby frogs that we find. .....

It's a big one! Creepy!

Well, Taylor became the star to all the girls and boys five and under. She is in her own little happy world with her frog-friend, while all these little kids come over to look at it, attempt to touch it, and then scream. So much fun.

Spencer suggests that she shows the kids how the frog can hop. So much fun. All the kids get excited, and Taylor gets a little panicky because she does not want it to hop away. So the big amphibian only gets to hop four times and then it's caught again. Poor thing. A few minutes later Spencer again suggests that she show the kids how the frog can hop, but he uses the phrase "LAST TIME". When you use this phrase it really means the last time, as Taylor is well aware. It is usually used in our home to end the games that go on and on, like "ring around the rosies", and "motor boat", and "hide-and-seek". Well, Dad said it yet again. He said, "Show the kids one last time". Taylor looked at him and said, "Dad, you already said 'last time'!" Can you believe how good she is? She sure is hard to trick!

A boy comments about the "frog".

Taylor replies, "See the bumps on it's back? That means it's a toad".

She kept repeating this whenever someone would call it a frog. I was impressed. She got that from a book we read to her about amphibians.

The adults in the restaurant thought this was all so much fun to watch. The time soon came that it was time to let the toad go. Not so fun anymore. Taylor was heart-broken. It wasn't a tantrum type of cry. It was a I-have-to-say-good-bye-to-my-favorite-pet-in-all-the-world type of cry. Taylor was saying, "But it's my pet, mom"!

Some parents were looking at Spencer and I like, "how are you or how can you say no to that?". I felt bad for Taylor...but these creatures just are not my kind of pet. They are salmonella-infested, they have an insect diet, and they are squishy, dirty and ugly. They are outdoor fun for the day, and then we let them go and wash our hands clean and say good bye and wait for the day when we get to catch another one.

The Mother Lizard

It's Sunday morning (last week). We are getting ready for church, which happens to be difficult with three children. We are ALMOST ready to walk out the door when Taylor finds a little baby lizard on the kitchen floor. She catches it. Poor thing. While this is going on, I am scrambling around the house trying to get all my stuff together and not paying attention to Taylor. We all get in the car and can't find her. She is in her room. I call her to come to the car from the bottom of the stairs and she comes promptly. In the car we have the following conversation:

"Taylor, where were you?"

"Oh, I was putting the lizard in my room because he's special to me."

"Oh. Where did you put the lizard in your room?"

"In my purse because I don't want him to get lost. He's special to me."

"Taylor, the lizard may not want to stay in your purse because he lives outside and needs to eat bugs and he needs to go back to his mother and father lizard."

"No, Mom, I am the mother lizard. I am his mother and he wants to stay in my purse."

I think this is all so entertaining. I was interested to see what would happen after church. Again, I forgot about it. But Taylor, being the mother lizard, didn't forget, and rushed straight to her room after church and opened her little blue purse to find no lizard. The lizard had gotten away. Taylor was upset, but she took it rather well. I just told her, again, that he probably did not want to be in the purse. Maybe she understood.

A few days later we found another baby lizard in our house and she had fun letting it crawl all over her dress. ...........(can you find it?)

I think after Taylor squeezing it so much it finally became paralyzed because it would just sit on her fingers without struggling to get away. Poor lizards. I sure am glad Taylor has maternal instincts. I just wish it didn't have to be lizards and frogs. I prefer Taylor to have stuffed animal sons and daughters.