Halloween '06

I was excited this year to be able to fully celebrate Halloween. You know kids in costume, going door to door and really understanding it, and having a house for other to come trick or treat at (the student life made trick or treating a bit slow on both ends). Here are a couple of my observations. Homemade costumes and original costumes are rare. I can't judge as for the most part my kids weren't either. Its hard to justify when I can get a well made costume at a lower price than I could probally make it. But I do love the picture of me as wonder woman with gold tinsel around my wrists when I was wonderwoman, next to Jill as a football player. I was also a Navy woman one year, then there was Pippi Longstocking, that was awesome. Mom used electrical tape to make stripped tights, and pipecleaners in my hair to make my braids stick straight out. Yep I loved Pippi, I think I did that a couple of years. Good job mom!! Another observation, a lot of dark costumes. What is with the scream guy?? Really ugly. We had a lot of older trick or treaters, not as fun as seeing the little kids. Observation #3, kids expect to be able to pick their candy from your selection. In my day they plunked it into the bag, now they want you to hold out the bowl. One boys approach at the door was "What you got for me??" Kinda makes you want to shut the door in his face. Am I the only one who thinks that trick or treat for food is genius!!! I love it, and think it really could fix the holiday. Less big kids, as the little children don't care about the candy as much as dressing up and getting compliments, and less money spent.
Either way the boys did have fun, I am posting a picture of the boys in their Narnia outfits, which they have been playing in for about 4 days straight. Ruby was the chick that Mason was a few years back, I am too tired to download the pictures right now, so to make up I will post a few from things we have done the past few weeks as a family. One week was an air show with the blue angels ... very cool. Last weekend we went to BOO at the zoo with some friends from BYU. Hopefully this will make up for not seeing sweet Ruby as a chick. Happy Halloween!!

Still Akward

Just wanted to post a current picture, 15 years later, that proves I continue to be very akward in pictures. I miss standing next to Garth - who matched my lack of camera saavy. This was taken at the Chicago training this summer.

Jill's big date!

I was going through my old mission stuff and found this photo that had been mailed to me. It had "blog me" written all over it!

Is it fast Sunday?

On the way to church today Zander asked "Is it fast sunday? Or is it slow Sunday or medium Sunday?" How do you even respond to that? We all had a good laugh.

Just another quick update, I have started a new personal blog. But if you want a little info on my new job just visit bradpace.com.

CENSORSHIP!

Nanci. Care to comment?

Back in Hotlanta

Well, I've hit the wall of despair this evening. I had such high hopes about finally posting pictures of the Rachel Tallman wedding, but I cannot find my transfer cord. I'm going to have to wait until I get a new one so that I can really start producing the visuals to bring my blogging entries to life.

Meanwhile, it has started to rain in Atlanta, making it feel like fall is really here. I haven't had much of a chance to explore the city yet. I do know how to get to the downtown area, the airport, the storage unit, and the grocery store. I hope to expand that circle soon. Speaking of downtown, I apparently haven't shaken that high school journalist... I get all unnerved when I think of how close we are to CNN Headquarters.

Just back from a trip to Pennslyvania, and am headed this weekend back to Tallahassee. It's business, but the hosting students have added some fun by interrupting training for the FSU football game. I think they are playing Boston College, who was lucky to beat BYU this year. I'm torn on who to cheer for... or rather against. I'll be wearing my BYU shirt. I could gruge cheer against BC or I could follow my gut to continue to cheer against Bobby Bowden. He's got too much of the good ol' boy in him. But then again, I think LaVell respected him. We'll see I suppose. The weekend after this one I'll be headed back to Tallahassee, as M. Catherine Thomas and her husband will be speaking there and I've been invited by their host family to hang out a bit. Looking forward to that road trip - and then to finally have a weekend in Atlanta.

And lastly, I think many of you know that I am a big fan of the "Best American (Fill in the BlanK) Writing". A big thank you to Matt for turning me on to these books with a Christmas gift years ago. Well, my two most recent aquisitions are the "Best American Crime Writing" and now the "Best American Scientific Writing 2006". In just a plane ride of reading, I can now say that I have a much better understanding of a) why chess is one of the most complex activities a human or machine can engage in, b) how "doing gender" is in the genes, and c) that we are biologically wired to believe in a God. I'm just saying, you might want to be watching out for some Smarty Pants entries in days or weeks to come.

Alright! Time to start winding down from the day. Another lesson learned today: frozen/reheated lasagne may very well taste better than when you made it over a month ago. For some reason I was a skeptic, but no more.

Down With Apathy! Blog Votes '06

I'm at Lafayette College this weekend. I'm starting to totally blend my weekends together. Last week, I was in Nebraska at Hastings College - and while I was walking to the library, I had it in my mind that I was in Nebraska looking for a library. Great. Now that I started writing, I'm tired. Not to tired to tell you the secret of Easton, PA though... they are not the home of the Easton bat (which I guessed), but rather the headquarters of Crayola!

What I wanted to say was Nanci/Clint - keep on with your bad selves! I too have oft made the vow to be a regular contributor, as that is what keeps things interesting. I'm going to post on Monday as a sign of my solidarity to Family Home Evening.

Here is another thing that I would love to see a blog written on: Things I am doing for Thanksgiving. I would also like to add a "matching grant" idea to Nanci's vote-for-a-topic... whatever is selected, I will also write on. Except for I'll use my perspective. I think facinating times are ahead. Anyway, I cast the first vote to learn a bit more about Maricopa. When do the votes get counted? I want to see if I can do some lobbying or buy some votes.

I hope everybody enjoyed BYU's bye weekend. I gave my shirt a nice rest. Okay - I'm starting to lose my edge. Farewell from the state that gave us Christina Aguilera.

Blog entry idea - votes welcome

I keep checking the blog, only to be disappointed at seeing no new posts, this is ok I know we all are very busy. I usually check in on my friend Elisa's blog because there is always something new there, she has done a great job. I went to bed tonight thinking about this, and how I could do better at regular posts (because this is one thing that makes hers so interesting).So the following is a list of some things I thought I could write about in the future, feel free to cast your votes as to which ones you are the most interested in hearing about first.
Maricopa the town (the things I know and think about it so far)
Maricopa high school homecoming parade and a reflection on Price.
Stages the kids are in.
Insects we have seen in Arizona.
The problem with indecsion (did I spell that right??)
College years vs. work world : an analysis by Clint and Nanci
Why we love BYU football

This is is for now, I can't see the screen with my contacts out, but now I should be able to rest.

MONK!

Has anyone elses life been taken over by Monk? I find myself always checking myself because of my intro to him. When I am at Costco getting napkins at the food bar, I think "Monk would find this place disgusting". When I have the cup holders out in my car hold trinkets or what not, I think "I had better put those away, Monk would conclude that we are pop in the car people (which we are not)." In house cleaning I move things as I vacume because I think he would notice and make other wrong, or maybe even right this time, conclusions about me. I had a dream the other night that I was helping him on a case and had to cancel my running appointment with a neighboor because we weren't finished with the case yet, but ironically she was ok with cancelling because her dog was involved in the case (the boys found this dream very amusing as I told it to them over breakfast). Lest you think I have been watching the show non stop, I haven't seen an episode for at least a month now. I don't know what the deal is, but tell me I am not alone in this!! Any other quirks might be interesting and sooth my pain if that is the best you can do. Good Night.