You are beautiful!

So, I posted a lovely blog yesterday about my children. I searched through my pictures, trying to find ones that represented their personalities. They all looked so cute. After a few hours I get a phone call from one of my daughters, telling me, very emphatically that I needed to find some other pictures. Those were the most horrible, embarrassing pictures I could have found.

Why is it that when we look at a picture of ourselves, all we can see are the flaws? The zit on your face, the pudgy cheeks, the bad hairdo, the outfit. I do it too. When looking at a family photo, I barely skim over everyone else, thinking they look great, but I look tired, or my eyes are not open or I need a facelift.

Somehow we need to find the good parts of ourselves and see past the tiny imperfections. We can't all be airbrushed and altered in photoshop. We are real people with kind hearts and good intentions trying to do our best in the world.

Daughters of mine.... you are beautiful. I can see it. The rest of the world can see it. Look at yourselves through my eyes. Remember your mother thinks you are marvelous even if you have a zit. I don't even see it. I love you for who you are.

My Greatest Blessings

I have the best kids in the world, really. My firstborn son is Michael. He and I spent 5 years alone together. He kept me laughing and on my toes. He started talking when he was about 5 months old and hasn't stopped since. He asked me every question under the sun. I read to him every single day. We completed the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy together. I found out the Tinkerbell had a potty mouth, while reading him Peter Pan. Around 14 years of age, things started getting tough for us. I was no longer the center of his universe. That's pretty hard on a mom. I was still full of wisdom on life's difficulties. He didn't want my wisdom any more. He wanted to figure it out for himself. He's grown up and learned lots of life's lessons. There are times when I just have to call him and tell him something funny, because I know he will get it. I'm proud of him and the man he's becoming.



Then there came Holly. I had a family full of brothers growning up. I was pretty sure my curse would be that I would only have boys. How very grateful I was to get a beautiful brown baby girl. People would stop me to tell me how beautiful she was. They still do. She is the agreeable one. She is just happy to be along for the fun. She loves to shop with me, even at the grocery store. We share a love for diet coke with a lime and cherries, from Sonic. It was tough to have her leave for college. I've seen her grow and become more self-assured and able to find her place in the world. I'm proud of her too.



Then there came Megan. She was the challenging baby. She cried, a lot.... We didn't know how to console her. After she could talk things got better because she could tell us. She needed to watch a movie and have milk-in-a-cup-with-a-lid and folding cheese. She is the one who looks like me but is full of her grannie Josie's personality. She's good with words and can write a great paper for school. She can speak up and say what she thinks. She has a tender heart. She's getting her life figured out. It was even tougher when she left home for college. But, she is learning and growing into her own person. She's going to be just fine. I'm proud of her as well.

My little birdies have left the nest. I have such wonderful memories of our lives together growing up. They are my greatest blessings.

Johnny Appleseed Song

Every morning at Camp Condor, we sang this song. It always helped me feel grateful for each new day. I have been greatly blessed and I am very grateful.

Bats in our Belfries

Last summer, in the evening, I was sitting looking up at the skylights in the cabin. I noticed lots of bats flying around up there. As you know, our cabin is a nice, new, high-quality cabin that shouldn't have bats living inside. I mentioned this to my mother, who insisted the bats didn't come from our cabin. The next evening I saw the same phenomenon in the skylight and pointed this out to my mother. Again, she said we couldn't possibly have bats. The next evening mother and I took up our post on the deck, directly in front of the peak in the roof of the cabin. We waiting and watched, straining our necks and eyes. Just when the mosquitoes were just starting to eat us alive, the bats started streaming out a tiny gap right at the top. We counted them as they came along. I used my best Count Voice (the one from Sesame Street), "One Bat, ah, ah ah!", "Two Bats, ah, ah, ah". We made it to 40 bats. Mother was shocked and appauled. Skip, our resident contractor, was dispatched shortly after we left Oregon to get rid of the bats. They started checking around and it seems they found bats across the river at the barn and in their garage at Cave Junction.

For a little Halloween gift I made this darling bat for my mother. She loved it. I just need to make her 39 more.

Disney's Halloween Haunts: Cartoon 3 (Trick-Or-Treat)

When Michael was a little boy, we had a VHS tape of this recorded from TV. He watched it over and over and over! Every year at Halloween the music from this plays through my mind and I usually end up singing the song. It's long, but it's a classic. Makes me think of my little Michael.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I found this recipe in an advertisement booklet. Drew needed a treat so I made them. Then I made them again while Holly and Meg were here, because they needed a treat too. I was going to make some cream cheese frosting to put on them, but Drew said they didn't need anything. Try them and let me know what you think.

1 Cup Butter (softened)
1 Cup White Sugar
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Can (14 1/2 oz) Pumpkin Puree
4 Eggs

Cream the above ingredients till smooth, then add:

1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg (put it in Ellie, it's good!)
2 Cups Flour

After mixing well, add 1 1/2 Cups Chocolate chips.

This makes 12 large muffins, or 24 regular size. Use papers or grease pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 - 25 minutes, until tops spring back when you touch them.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

The Witches

October 1st is Witch Day at the Deckers. Both Drewsilla Wilma and Ruby Tuby go up to delight the children of Utah Valley for the month of October. Our witch is Ruby. She got a new outfit this year and is looking good! I stood outside and watched along with some neighbors while Drew put her up. I had my cell phone ready so I could call 911 if Drew fell off the roof. Thank goodness, no 911 this year.






Drew and Wayne put up the Williamson's witch earlier in the day. Jackie did a fabulous new costume for her. I was jealous of it's total greatness.

About 9 o'clock that night we got a phone call from Kirk Williamson. "Drew, the witch looks great..... but there's a problem.... we think it's her knees.... we think she needs some surgery. Can you come FIX IT. Of course, Drew has a freak out. He worries and frets and says it's Wayne's fault. Fixing the witch is easy when it's on the ground. Not so easy on a 20 foot pole.

So, Drew gets the great idea to borrow some scaffolding from a stucco friend and set that up under the witch to have a more stable place to stand on while working on her. So, he takes the worst helper ever, me, and off we go.

I'm here to tell you I have a new admiration for stucco guys who set up scaffolding. It's not easy. And it's a death trap. Accident waiting to happen. Drew was hanging up there like a monkey. He couldn't get the third level up there. It ran into the light post. And the helper on the ground was worthless. I did wear a hard hat.

While up a little closer, Drew noticed that one of the ribbons from the new fancy skirt had wrapped itself around the pedal, thus preventing the pedal from going around. He shouted with joy, "A wardrobe malfunction!". He was much relieved it wasn't his mechanics. Being a resourceful guy, he taped his utility knife to his very long straight edge with black tape, hung on like a monkey, and after about 57 tries, he managed to cut through the offending piece of ribbon finery.

He will be going back to do some skirt shortening another day.

Oh, and taking down scaffolding looks like a giant KERPLUNK game. I'm glad Drew didn't land in the middle of it.

Lovely Taylor

In our neighborhood, we have a wonderful group of moms. I can count on them though thick and thin. They love my children. I love their children. We share them.

Taylor is Wendy's daughter. I got to keep her for awhile this summer while Wendy was busy tending to her mom in California. I was sad to have to give her back.

Homecoming came early in American Fork. Lucky thing because Taylor got to show her very sick Boom Boom her beautiful dress, along with her beautiful whole self. I love that the whole neighborhood got to see her off. The poor boy didn't know what hit him.

College

I went with Megan and Holly to St. George, Utah two days after we got home from Oregon to get them settled in their new condo. Holly was supposed to get the utilities hooked up. I made her do that before we left the house on Weds afternoon. We knew they wouldn't be hooking them up until the next day, so we were expecting a hot night. If you don't know about St. George, it is desert country and about as hot as Taft. It makes for miserable summers and great winters. Anyway, we waited and waited for the utility people to come. We were so hot that we had to visit various gas stations to get a diet coke and use the facilities (no water either). Then we had to repeat the above scenario all day long, throwing several trips to Walmart, Target, etc. They didn't make it that next day. We were all pretty crestfallen. Another night camping out on the living room floor wishing that a breeze would come in the open door was not what we wanted. We were promised they would be there "first thing in the morning". Now, Jimmy Decker used to say "first thing in the morning" and he worked for the water company. I knew when Jimmy said it, it meant when he got around to it. As it turns out, that is a universal utility term and Jimmy's interpretation was the correct one. But, they turned on the water and power around 12:30 pm. No hot water, but a cold shower was perfect.

Anyway, after that things improved greatly at the condo. It ended up being a memorable mother-daughter camp out. Holly and Megan have a really nice place to live. Drew came down on Saturday with the big stuff in his truck. They were thrilled to see their dad and get him to help with the dad things. Then we left them there. Sad, sad, so sad! I miss them.

PS. I tried to get Meg to be in a picture, but she wouldn't, so you will just have to imagine her there.

Summer Vacation at the Ranch

We went to Oregon for a week in August. The weather was perfect. The ranch looked great. Dad wasn't able to drive his truck across the river until the week before we got there, which is really unusual. I was sure glad, because they got the water fixed and all we had to do was relax and have fun. The main fun things were lots of floating in the river for the girls and Drew, the traditional cook-out on the beach, four-wheelers, deer watching and a simply gorgeous night out on the deck watching the meteor shower. It was such a dark night and the sky was the most magnificent I have ever seen it. One week was too short, but the girls had to get back to pack up and leave for college.

I sure love that place and all those people that we hang out with there.

Taylor's Birthday Present

Taylor (my almost daughter) was turning 16 and I needed a faboulous gift. I saw a purse on a website that I really liked, so, of course, I copied it. Who needs a pattern? If you want to see the real thing, look on heatherbailey.com she has some really great stuff.

I used some fabric that I had. I made the flowers by burning circles of synthetic fabric with a candle and stacking the graduated sizes on top of each other. It think it turned out just perfect.

Graduations

I went to two graduations this year. The first one I went to was my nephew, Derek. He graduated from Moreau Catholic High School. I flew down to Oakland and met Bryce and my parents there. The graduation was at this old theater in Oakland. As I sat watching Derek I thought a lot about my brother Mark (Derek's dad). He would have been so proud! I felt like he was smiling down from Heaven at us that day. Congratulations to Derek. He's going to UC Riverside in the fall.



After the California graduation excitment, I rode with my mom and dad back to Utah. We were excited to go to Megan's graduation. Another sentimental day for me! I have to try very hard not to cry at these events. We went to dinner at our favorite Japanese restaraunt, Osaka. Since Megan's date was Taylor (my almost daughter). Meg is going to Dixie State College in the fall.

My Bag

So, I needed a bag to carry things to church. I saw one that a friend made and I copied it, making it bigger. I put in a zippy pocket and a holder that has a place for 2 pens, glasses and a package of tissue (I'm always needing a package of tissue at church!).

I had some fabric left from the Apron that I made for Ellie and Holly had torn her fabulous pink denim jeans in the crotch area where it was impossible to repair. So, I whipped up this bag. I think it's really cute. I wish I had some cute clothes to wear when I carry it. I'll have to come up with another one for wintertime.

My St. Patrick's Day Effort

It's been a long time since I've blogged. I decided I needed to start my own blog to just feature the stuff I'm doing. The family blog just didn't seem like the right forum for that. So, I'm back to blogging.

I love blogs. I have quite a list the I try to read on a regular basis. I saw something on one yesterday (It's called CrazyBeautiful.com). I thought it was so cute, so I came up with my own version. I made one for Meg to wear to school today and another for my almost daughter Taylor. She lives 3 houses down, and will have to sub in for Megan and Holly when they both are at college next year.

What do you think?