Pumpkin Carving 2009

We hope you enjoy the witchy days ahead. We have had quite the preparation for the all important carving of the pumpkins. We started off by spending some time earlier in the week scooping out the goop in preparation for a Ward Pumpkin Carving Activity. This is really the first year that the older boys have really been brave enough to touch the goop and as you can see from the pictures they really got into it. We may have been cheating at the Ward Activity by having our pumpkins pre-gooped; but can you imagine two adults helping 3 children de-goop pumpkins all on one night and still finish the carving by the end of the activity?

The older boys designed and carved their own pumpkins this year. Unsurprisingly the Engineer's is a clone trooper (from the new Starwars Clone Wars cartoon). He was able to use the pumpkin carving knife and placed all the shapes exactly where he wanted them. It was fun to see his creative side and willingness to move outside of the usual jack-o-lantern pumpkin designs.

The Comedian got a free pumpkin certificate from his Kindergarten class and so he and I went to the store for him to pick out whatever he wanted. He chose a ghost pumpkin and was hoping that it would have green,purple or white insides; he was a bit disappointed when it was orange just like the others. He recovered however and made a stunning ghost tiger, which won the ward pumpkin carving contest.

Tiny Tyrant was eager to participate and directed every move of mom whilst she was carving. Triangle nose, here, eyes, mouth....and we had to get creative with the ears and whiskers. However the Comedian got some good ideas from our creative adventures and we think that maybe those ideas are what put his pumpkin over the top.

I hope you enjoy the picture of the process and their creations!

Happy! Happy!~Screamy! Screamy!~Witchy! Witchy!
Halloweeny!

Engineer meets Art

My Engineer drew some special thank you cards for those who helped him celebrate his birthday. These in the top picture were designed punctually right after his birthday. I love the Choose the Right card that he gave to his Primary teachers. The one diagonal from it is supposed to be a Liahona (not sure why really, and I can't remember who it was sent to). The other two showed his obsession at the time with meat eaters and sharp teeth. See the Corn-ivore pictures if you need your memory refreshed.


This second set of cards (as I'm sure you can guess) didn't get completed until mid-October. However the Engineer has been learning new art techniques in school (again, I'm sure you could tell) and his methods have been influenced by them. He told me that he had learned about using a "reisst" (i.e. crayon) to keep other mediums (his words I promise you) like markers from sticking. He has also learned that "works of art" have titles. Thus without further ado I present to you (beginning with the jack-o-lantern and its friends the spiders) Jack-o-lantern Retaliation, The Thrown Room (see the two teeny tiny thrones in the bottom center?), below that is Police Car Interior, and finally Secret Battle-stations Portal. I hope I remembered all of the names correctly. If you received one and it is different please let me know.
I love to see how his skills have developed and changed overtime and Miss Manners would be pleased that even though they were terribly late the Thank-You notes did still go out.

Please Stand Up and Let YOUR Vote Count

The day is fast approaching for all of us to let our voices be heard through our vote. If you live in Logan City you can go here to see which candidates won the primary. If you click on their names it will share a bit more about them. Most of the candidates have a website listed where you can go and read a bit more about their views and reasons for running for City Council. I would especially urge you to consider whether you want candidates in office who have a website "Coming Soon" less than 2 weeks from election day.

Additionally there are several debates scheduled for this week:

Municipal Council at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Taggart Student Center on the Utah State University campus.

Municipal Council at 7 p.m. Thursday at Logan City Hall, 290 N. 100 West.

Mayor at 8 p.m. Thursday at Logan City Hall, 290 N. 100 West.

Mayor at 12:30 p.m. Friday at the Taggart Student Center on the USU campus.

But really, I don't care WHO you vote for....please just vote. As much as I like my vote to speak for over 20 people who chose to not vote, I would be so much happier if they would choose to speak up and let their will help to steer our way.

If you live somewhere else in the great state of Utah go here to find out where your polling site is and view a sample ballot.

If you live somewhere else in our great nation take a minute, do a search and find out a bit about the candidates and your local issues but please

GET OUT AND VOTE TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3, 2009!

I've been in hiding......

I've been pondering a lot lately about why I find it difficult to share the details of my real life here; not just the cute, funny endearing moments that I find to be true tender mercies that help keep me going. My life is not all darling children and memorable moments. Most days are quite difficult to get through and more often than not I make at least one if not multiple calls to a dear friend begging her to remind me that 1) there is a plan! 2) one day it will all be better than okay, one day it will be celestial and I'll be able to see and know all my boys without the challenges that they face in this life. and 3) that she has hard days too; they are not easier just different challenges and we signed up for this life to be challenged, to be tested and refined.

I think I've decided that it really comes down to a fear of being judged for the reality of my life. The reality of my life is not what I dreamed about when I was in High School, and many around me who know the boys don't truly see them in all their overstimulated glory and often tell me how "perfect" my boys are. I know that they are perfect in that they are sons of a loving Father in Heaven who love them and that they are made in his image. However one of the things that keeps me going is the belief that beyond this life they will not have the struggles with Autism and anxiety that we work so very hard to teach them coping methods for.

I have a select handful of blogs written by strangers that I read. They are all very real in sharing the good, the bad and the ugly in their lives.

One very loving mother is searching for a new family for her son. How do you do that? I don't know. I am grateful each day that I don't have to make the decisions she is making. Yet, I have no doubt that she has prayed and searched for every other option and has regretfully agreed with the specialists that there is no other option. If you visit her site, and read their story I beg of you that you be kind. She is walking a very difficult road.

Another has picked up her family and moved across country to run a RV camp while homeschooling her children experiencing Reactive Attachment Disorder (among other challenges. She takes on life full steam ahead and her consequences for misbehavior really make sense and reemphasize the responsibility that comes with exercising agency.

My dear friend, Grandma Honey, writes about her sweet grandchildren and I find strength most when she shares about little Cami's progress. Well, she isn't a stranger but she lives far from me and so often her posts are just the reminder that I need to keep moving forward on those difficult days.

Yet another lives not far from us and shares their journey through adoption and attachment challengers.

Then there are the Livesay's who moved their family to Haiti in order to adopt into their family and remain their ministering to the Haitian people. Tara's dry wit is so often what I need to remember that even though sometimes it is No good, very bad there is still so much good here on this earth.

Reading about how they are getting through their very difficult days lends me strength (and creativity) to get through some of my challenging days.


I've taken most of the month of October off of pretty much everything. I've not taken the Tiny Tyrant to any therapy appointments so far this month. Nor have we worked on Speech and Social interactions with the Engineer; and I've rescheduled the Comedian's doctor appointments three times so far (and I'm thinking of rescheduling again....). It has been so nice to pretend that our life is normal, if even for a few weeks. There are many things I've been able to do that normally I couldn't even consider like spontaneously take dinner to a neighbor (even if it was in sporadic stages *grin*), go Visiting Teaching at times that I had other commitments, have insanely scheduled days (I'm used to them...really!) spontaneously, volunteer at the boys' school, and even substitute for the PE teacher two days, take charge of organizing an annual Ornament Exchange for a group of friends and go for walks in the beautiful leaves with the boys...and so many other things. For the last three weeks I've really had life be close to what I imagined it would be; sure there have been difficult times but it just seemed easier somehow to not be faced every. single. day. with my sons lack of progress, or setbacks, or areas of development where he looks more like a 3-4 month old rather than the 2 1/2 year old he is chronologically.

Next week, well really tomorrow, I've promised myself that I would get back to the hard work of living. Now that it is here it is so tempting to cancel the home visit on Tuesday; but I know it is not in the best interests of the Tyrant to continue on like this. I know that I've committed to giving my children the best but it is so tempting this month week to settle for good!

Who was that masked mom?

So I was being a dork and playing around with my boys. They are into superheros big time lately. So we had capes, and pretend webs and all kinds of pretend weapons being flung around the living room at pretend bad guys, with all the showoff stances and everything that comes along with it.

I was obviously too into the moment because I declared, "I'm batman! So just give up!"

To which my 7 year old instantly froze, gave me the "you're such a dork look", and slowly and carefully said...."You mean the Mrs. Batman? I don't think there is one. I know there is Wonder Woman but you wear too many clothes (!?!) to be her. Hmm...maybe you will have to pretend to be a boy first before you pick a superhero!"

When I burst into laughter he was quite concerned and added, "Why don't we watch one of the shows so you can learn how to play a bit better, okay?"

So now I need lessons in playing superheroes.......what next?

A little while later I asked him, "So if I can't be batman who can I be?" and he looked at me with his sweet face (the one he uses when he is being patient with his little brothers and doesn't want to make them cry but knows that what he has to say will probably hurt anyway) and says, "Mom just be yourself, leave the superhero stuff to us experts"