Gingerbread Men Are Magic

So this week in school we are reading several different versions of the Gingerbread Man.  Gingerbread Boy, Gingerbread Girl and several variations.

After reading all of these stories we have done Venn Diagrams to compare and contrast the different stories.  We have also been talking over the past several months about genres and what is real and what is fantasy.

This little boy totally made me smile.  I am reading one on one with him and he leans over to me and whispers:
Boy: Mrs. Allen?
Me:  Yes ______
Boy:  Do you know why this story is fantasy and isn't real?
Me:  Yes!  I would love to hear.
Boy:  Well, gingerbread men could really be magic and walk around.... but... animals can't talk.... So I know that this story couldn't really happen.
Me:  (Not knowing what to say and trying not to smile too big)  _____ great job!  Those are good detecting skills!

The way he said it and the look on his face was so priceless.  What would life be like if we truly believed in magical things?

The PTO came and did a Santa Shop where the kids could come pick out a small gift to give to their parents for Christmas.  They had a santa come in to the gym and talk to the kids as they were picking their gifts.  My second graders are a little skeptical of santa right now but a couple of kindergarten kids that I also work with ran up to me, Mrs. Allen, Mrs. Allen!  Santa is HERE!!!  Can you go outside and see if his raindeer are hiding behind the playground.  We couldn't see them.  They were so excited to see santa.  The REAL one, yet so sad they couldn't see a raiindeer.  I got a laugh out of that one too.

Humor Me

So this week Gary and Sheila came to visit for Thanksgiving.  We had a great time and did a lot of fun things.  It is sad when family has to leave.  

One day we decided to go to a movie.  The rest of the crew wanted to see Lincoln and I wasn't too excited about it so I ran in to the new Twilight movie.  *** I will try not and spill any of the details.

In the movie a comment is made that two people are so happy that they will get to live together for a thousand years.  If you know anything about the series you know that it is about vampires.  Once you are a vampire you never change.  You don't age.  You don't eat.  You can't be in the sunlight.  (Many other vampire shows are different but that is how it is in Twilight.)  

I am not a die hard Twilight fan.  I find them entertaining if nothing else.  

The line that I am talking about is one of the last lines in the movie.  As the credits started to roll I couldn't help but be sad.  Not sappy sad, but sad that that seems so desirable to some people.  And the truth is, it is possible!!  

I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the knowledge that families are forever and I will get to live with my companion for a thousand years plus some.  I am glad that I get to age.  Did I just say that?  In one of my favorite movies, The Guardian, the old lady bartender says:

 I've always been old Ben. Ya' know what though, I don't mind. I mean if my muscles ache, it's because I've used 'em. It's hard for me to walk up them steps now, its 'cuz I walked up 'em every night to lay next to a man who loved me. I got a few wrinkles here and there, but I've layed under thousands of skies with sunny days. I look and feel this way, well cuz I drank and I smoked. I lived and I loved, danced, sang, sweat and screwed my way thorough a pretty damn good life if you ask me. Getting old ain't bad Ben. Getting old, that's earned. 

I love that quote!  I feel the same way. Except for the smokin' drinkin' part :)  I am grateful that I get to get old with my husband and all that brings.  Becoming an aunt.  Becoming a sister-in-law. A mother in the future.  I can't imagine what it would be like if we were the same age for the rest of time.  

I love me some food.  Ask all my clothes that don't fit right now!  I am glad that I get to find pleasure in food!

I am grateful that I can spend every day in the sunshine!  

I am glad I am not a vampire.  I am glad that I get to live this life and enjoy and endure everything that it throws our way.  And once this life time is over, I get to spend eternity with my Brian and get to enjoy whatever may come on the other side.  Being a vampire is not desirable.  Being a human and having the gospel is the most desirable thing anyone could ever want. 

That was a really random post, I know!  Please forgive!

Happy now? Part 2

 Mine

 Brian's

 Ours

Hard to see but we thought it was the perfect Walmart picture.  On the Merc... Right side of the trunk... That is a lock.  It is a piece of metal glued to the truck and to the bumper thingy because their trunk won't stay closed.

Oh Mother...

So on my mom's blog she is doing a protest in response to all of us that don't update our blogs very often.  Including me...  But she knows everything that is going on with me anyways, and she is like the only one that reads our blog in the first place!

Anywhooo, here it goes.

I am busy with school and Young Women.  Lots of meetings lately and activities.  I wear comfy, gruby clothes every day to school because I know it is just a matter of time before someone throws up, spills something on me or gives me lice.  The day I get lice is the day I put in my 2 weeks.  Not kidding.

Brian is off of work this week.  Why did I go back to work??  I could be at home doing fun things with him all week!

I have a list of things for him to do this week a mile long.  He is making really good progress and I am really excited.

I have started my Thanksgiving cooking.  I have made 2 pumpkin cake rolls and need to start tackling more batches of rolls.

I am trying to have my Christmas shopping done during Black Friday sales. I am not going to go out but I am going to try and do some online shopping.

Our Christmas lists are short this year but have very unattainable, expensive things on them.  We are not going home for Christmas this year.  I am ok with it right now... but I know that when December gets her and all the traditional Christmas activities are going on I am really going to be sad.  Just plan on it.  We are not going home so that we can save our money and come for a couple weeks in the summer.

I put my Christmas tree up last night.  I know, really early but I don't have anything to put on my mantle or decorate with now that Halloween is over so I figured I may as well put up the tree.  Maybe come January I will have to put my easter stuff up REALLY early so I at least have something to make my walls not so barren.

There you have it mom, Happy now???

-Your Daughter.

Mom kindly reminded me today that my blog is extremely outdated.  Yes, it is.  I don't feel like blogging right now.  So I'm not.
Yesterday I had a cute little first grader raising his hand at the lunch table.  I went over and asked what he needed, he said nothing, he was answering a question.  I said ok and didn't think much else of it but he wanted to tell me.  He said I was raising my hand because I hate my life.  My friend said raise your hand if you hate your life.

I said oh why did you raise your hand? He said well because nothing goes right, I make stupid mistakes, I do stupid things and I am no good at school.

Well today that is how I feel.  So I am not blogging today.  No, I don't hate my life.. just not a fan of it today ha!

Maybe Tomorrow I will update the blog :)

slackers

I too have been slacking in the blogging world.  I check all of these blogs and get frustrated when people don’t update them.  I guess I fall in to that category as well.  Last post… August 30^th!  Not much has been going on though!  Brian has been on a few trips, lots of Young Women stuff for me, lots of church stuff for Brian and house work. 

I don’t even remember what we did for Memorial Day!  I think we just did yard work and stuff around the house.  Oh!  We did buy a bed..  How exciting is that…  Brian just got back from Gillette, WY.  His flight was cancelled and he got home 24 hours late.  We had a friend from BYU-I come out and stay with us while he attended a conference at Purdue which was fun to have him here.

My parents are coming this weekend and I am so excited!!!!!

We have off the 26-29^th of October and trying to plan a fun mini vaca.  We might go to Nauvoo or DC.  

Well I have a new found appreciation for Friday's. I went back to work this past Monday and I now greatly anticipate Fridays!  I have really loved my job so far so it isn't pulling teeth to get through the week but Friday means that I get to go to bed late and sleep in!!!

Last week was our two year anniversary.  Brian was working so for our anniversary dinner we went to a taco business dinner.  We figured we would celebrate at a later date.  I got a food saver!  We both thought it would fun to try and really help prolong our food storage.  We are really trying to get our year supply of everything so it will be nice.

Brian has been in Quebec this week.  He has been to Canada before but this is really his first trip where there has been language barrier. EVERYONE speaks French and he can't understand a word.  His first experience trying to go to a restaurant where everything was in a different language must have been traumatic enough that he went to Walmart and bought a weeks worth of food ha!

I have not got in to politics at all.  Actually, to tell you the truth, I hate political talk.  But Brian said he watched Ann Romney's speech last night and that I should watch it.  Well that is what I did.

She is such a classy lady.  Even if she wasn't a member of my same faith I think I would still really like her.  She is such a down to earth, great example.  I really enjoyed some of the things she said.  Since when is being successful a bad thing?  I don't think that success is a measure of how many dollar bills you have.  We can have so much success in so many other ways!  I have actually been thinking a lot about this lately.  We can have success in so many aspects of our life beside money!  Since when is it bad to serve others?  Like I said, I don't follow politics but I have seen several headlines regarding Mitt Romney and his service and charity distributions.  Regardless of what religion you are, when did it become a negative to serve and to give to the less fortunate.  In the Book of Mormon it tells us over and over that we are to give of our substance and clothe and feed those that are in need. Kind of random, but those were a couple of thoughts I have after watching.

My sweet Brian likes to surprise me with flowers.  He actually does it quite a lot.  This week was another one of those days.  Like I mentioned before, he had work all last week and is gone this week.... actually he will be gone a LOT this coming month!  Anyways... he wanted to leave me with a surprise before he left.  I think they are quite beautiful! Thanks Brian!!

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY.... tomorrow is GAME DAY!!!!
I have to wish all of my boys the best of luck and I wish I could be there with you!
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!

Where Has The Time Gone

I don't know what to do with my life now that the Olympics are over!  I have really enjoyed them.  I feel like I am invested in their lives!  Swimming is always exciting  I really got in to the women's gymnastic.  They are amazing.  When you are young kids make fun of 'boy' gymnasts.  I don't care who you are,  they are true athletes!  Track is ok.  I only like to watch the finals.  Volleyball is always good.  Water polo absolutely amazes me!  Well towards the end of the olympics the good stuff was starting to die out and synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics were on. It is the first time that I sat down and really watched. The swimming is not really my cup of tea but those girls are tougher than they look.  And gymnastics.... it was AWESOME!  It is amazing what they do.  I don't know if it is a 'sport' but it is definitely and art.  Brian was making fun of me for watching but I made him watch a routine and he couldn't believe what they could do!

Well, I never thought I would be able to say this... but we made it through a year in Indiana ALIVE.  Some days I never dreamed I would be able to say that.  We still aren't in love with the area but one thing is for sure, we have been extremely blessed.  Brian is thriving at work and the sky will be the limit for him and his career.

I don't feel old at all.  I still feel way young!  But we are coming up on our two year anniversary and next year I will have been out of high school for 5 years.  I still feel 17 at times.  Well I don't keep very good track of the time and I guess I am old enough to be back in Young Womens.  Yesterday I was put in as the Lafayette 3rd Ward Young Women's President.  I don't feel old enough.  But I have already learned a LOT from the calling already.  I've learned that I am not in control, the Lord is.  I am very nervous about this calling but it will be fun!

What A Day!

What a day.  I will admit that some days I am kind of lazy.  But not today!  I cleaned and then I cleaned some more.  I bleached all of my tile grout.  I don't have that much tile but when you think about having to scrub 4 sides of every tile... it adds up... fast.  Then I cleaned my oven.  I also finished refurbing my lamp.  I will have to post a picture.  It looks really good!  I am proud of it.

This is where it gets interesting.  Brian got home from work and we had to run and get a few things and this car backs out of his driveway.  It would be like a guy backing out of his driveway on 17th street.  A busy road and we had to stop pretty abruptly.  He kind of just sat there for a minute.  Brian was a great driver and was paying attention.  Then he sped off really fast and almost hit several curbs.  At this point we were thinking that maybe we should call someone and report him as a drunk driver.  I bet he was going 60+ in a 35 too.  Well we pulled up to an intersection and had a red light and he stops literally like right in the middle of the road.  At this point we really thought we should call someone but didn't know if that was a 911 matter or who to call.  Well we both turn and not 50 yards ahead the next light changes and he he doesn't slow down.  Brian was like 'WOA He is Going To Hit People!' Well he did.  He rear-ended a lady and it was a 3 car effect.  We go past them and get a visual of the driver.  We were going to pull forward and make sure the lady that he hit first was ok.  Well that is when it gets MORE interesting.  The guy takes off!  That's when we decide it is definitely time to call 911.  It rang 9 times before anyone picked up.  Good thing I wasn't dying or something...  Well Brian had turned and started to follow this guy.  The 911 lady said keep following him and she had several people going to the scene.  We followed him forever.  He was going sooo fast!  like 75 on these little residential streets. It was like he was going through a maze.  We kept giving the lady directions and she said the cops were getting closer and keep following.  We gave a description of the car and license number and told her everything that happened. He got going so fast that finally we lost him but she said that she had a cop that had a visual on the vehicle.  She said we would be getting a call to give our witness statement but no one has called.  It was a very scary experience.  I thought he had a gun or something.  At one point we even saw that he got out of his car to check out the damage up front.  We followed him for several blocks and I'm sure that he noticed.  Scary, but it feels good that we did our civic duty and helped catch the 'bad guy.'  Ha I should be a CSI  person.

Tomorrow is going to seem quite boring after tonight!

 We found a Johny's!! We are so excited. It is an hour and a half away but we may have to make the journey for special occasions.  It was amazing! Look how happy he is, the only think that could have made it better was if they had potato soup.

 Louisville, KY

 The Ohio River

We had to post pictures of the snow leopard.  Until you have seen Planet Earth's documentary on how long it took to get footage of this cat you are probably thinking, why post so many pictures of a stupid cat.  

 I can't imagine having one of these on my front porch in the morning as kids are going to school!

 The polar bear was the life of the show.  We sat there for probably 45 minutes watching him.  She would swim down and put logs in the holes in the rocks.  She would do some tricks and try and get the stick back out. Doesn't sound funny, but it was.

 We got there when the trainers were training the elephants.  We saw them do a whole bunch of tricks.

 Look at the baby!  So tiny!

 Churchill Downs was not what I expected.  I was expecting what you see in the movies.  It is actually pretty run down looking.  You can tell it was a fabulous place back in 1847 when it opened.

 Yes, That is the Louisville baseball and football stadium.  I pictured KY would have rolling fields with white picket fences and horse farms.  Well the track is right in the middle of town.  And the ghetto at that...

 They have this fun painting with all the winners.

 I had to take a picture of this!  Take a guess who this is?? Lucien Laurin and Secretariat!!!

 They have this glass replica of the entire stadium.  It is HUGE.  It would have taken three or four shots to get the whole thing in.

 The KY Science Center.  Kinda boring actually...

 Look how big they get!  Brian is just over 6 foot

 This is the thingy-magig they took to the moon.  There is another person that sits to Brian's right.  Tight space huh?

 Before...

 During...

 Getting Closer...

 The final product!

 Brian put an outlet in my island!  I AM SO EXCITED!!

My second batch of Jam.  I am looking forward to doing peach jam in the fall.

I am working on other projects.  I will post them when I am done.

So in KY we went to the temple Friday night.  It was really pretty and really small.  We did Sealings and the temple pres. was the one that did them.  We also did a session and it was really nice.  We went to the zoo the next morning, Churchill Downs, and the science center.  It was a fun little weekend.  We will definitely go to that temple more often.