ketchup

No it isn't another hot dog post. I only eat ketchup on french fries. This is a post of the latest goings on at the Moncur house. And a picture (finally) of the necklaces we made in Relief Society.

Ethan's class made a quilt to auction at his school's fundraiser. Each child made their own square on a sewing machine. Ethan loved it! He wants to learn more about sewing. Apparently this quilt was sold for $700! Insane, I know! The auction made $19,000 over all. Crazy!

Then we went to Halloween party last night at the church.

Olivia was a pink princess eating a donut on a string.

I went as a Groovy Girl. Only the little girls and the moms with girls knew who I really was. One guy thought I was Rock star Dora. The old guys thought I was a Spice Girl. The real detail was the tag on my side. All the Groovy Girls have a tag with their name on it.

Ethan was a grumpy garden Nome. He is such a nut.

This is our neighborhood moose. She was a young mom this summer, but we haven't seen the baby for a while. And she was limping pretty bad the other day so we think they got hit by a car and the baby must not have made it.

Speaking of hitting moose. We were coming home on the highway last week and a moose stepped in front of us as we were going 70 mph. She jumped back just in time and we barely missed a really bad accident. So I added a new line to the Moose Counter on the right.

Moose in Alaska are like squirrels in Vermont. Only bigger.

Saturday we had a party for Jed and Sarah and their friends in Alaska to celebrate their recent nuptials.

I did not make anything from a box as my sister would have done (haha sis!)

I made Chicken soup, spinach artichoke cheese tortellini casserole, party ham roll ups, salad an bread. We also had chips and salsa and Pirate Booty to snack on (I didn't make that). I called my brother and cook extraordinaire, Stephen to tell him to move to Alaska with me and start a catering business. I loved cooking for this! But my family had to clean house all by themselves with me just barking orders while I stirred. I paid each kid 5 cents for each piece of trash they picked up. Then JaDee had Carter pay him 5 cents for each article of clothing he put away for him (that was a lot of pronouns: JaDee put away Carter's clothes. Then Carter had to pay JaDee for doing it).

I got to buy flowers at Costco instead of just looking at them.

And these are my Best-Cupcakes-in-the-Whole-World-and-I-have-tried-Everything cupcakes

Oh the butter I used to make all of this.

But I have been getting to Spin class MWF at 6 AM and to weight training class MTh at 9:30 AM to help off set all of that.

And we had snow yesterday. It was sticking at my friends house because she lives on the mountain. I am just below her and it did not stick. I am trying to wait to November 1 for snow tires.

That's all for now!

CNURDTHS?

There is an amazing amount of vanity plates here in Alaska. We see them all the time. Sarah noticed them when she first moved here and I believe I discussed this with Ryanne once too. I drive around looking at these trying to A) figure out what they say, and B) figure out what they mean about the person. Here are some I have seen recently:

LIL SUV
PARTY
HPYFAM
TM2HNT
BRN2FSH
TM2SNO
DADSA4
CASNVA
MOMSVU

The last 2 are particularly funny to me. CASNVA is on an old Tahoe much like my old one in Utah. The man who drives it is not particularly attractive and he is old. He drives like one of those punks looking for a race on the Boulevard in Syracuse or on Main in Lovell. And his car is soooo loud!! Like in a "fix-it-before-it-breaks" kind of way not the "look-at-my-cool-engine" kind of way. Anywho, my guess is he is the kind of guy that needs dinner on a TV stand in front of the game and he hits on young girls behind the video counter at Blockbuster.

MOMSVU I see around town a lot. At first I thought she couldn't spell SUV and felt bad for her as only the mom of a fellow dyslexic can feel. Then I thought she was maybe trying to start her own criminal investigations television series. But, I looked closer and saw that the car this plate was on is a Saturn VU. So she's just not creative in her vanity plate. And maybe didn't think through all the interpretations of it.

What would I put? Hmmmm. I have thought about this since it seems to be the thing here to do. I thought of COUGRS, but even though I mean to refer to BYUs mascot I might be perceived as running a club of carousing older women.

Then I thought of BYU, but then I saw one here with it already.

JaDee thought of CUSE as a nod to Syracuse.

GOORNG looked too much like Goo Ring or Goor Nog instead of GO Orange.

MOMVAN is so lame I could puke. And that is so not who I am.

CEO I thought would be cool since it is my kids initials and it would let people think I was some business hot shot and they would spend their time at the red light wondering what important person was in front of them. Simultaneously they would praise me for my practical choice in a mini-van and my dedication to my children as I wait in the carpool lane instead of being at my powerful workplace. All in all a very good choice.

So, what do you think?

And what would you choose for YOU!

possessed...a Halloween tale

I have had a rather busy week. I should not even be on here right now, but I have to write about the funny thing that happened to me. It is actually indirectly related to my busy week.

See I had to run to Anchorage for this elusive glaze that we are using in our Relief Society Fabulous Friday this weekend. I got left being in charge of a beaded necklace with Scrabble tile pendant when someone who knew how to make this project moved and therefore getting promoted to running the whole thing vs. just helping shop for parts on eBay.

Back to the story... After claiming my rare dimensional glaze (That is a technical term in the scrabble tile necklace world) I was starving on my way back to pick Olivia up from pre-school. My 7 AM bowl of Cheerios wasn't cutting it anymore ( it was 3:00). I did not have time for much not did I have more than $4 in my wallet. Taco Bell did not sound tempting. Nor did anything else. So I decided to run into the gas station for a drink and a Luna Bar to tide me over.

But I get to the drink station and sense something staring at me. Boring its eyes in the back of my nourishment deprived brain. Vulnerable to its powers I turn in slow motion to see the hot dog station. (the red font color is supposed to be scary...like blood. The italics is supposed to be shiver-y).

My mouth begins to water.

Mustard. Relish. That sweet and tangy mixture tempting the back of my throat.

I could not resist.

But half way through fishing the dog out of the hot water with tongs that had been resting in an empty drink cup and squeezing the relish out of the Heinz bottle instead of opening up an individual package, I realize (too late) the sanitary (or lack of) situation I am in.

The relish bottle was a sticky, and slightly crusty, squeeze kind. So was the mustard. How hot does the water have to remain before awaiting hot dogs grow bacteria? And when was the last time these tongs sitting next to them were cleaned? I bet they have never been dropped on the floor. Or picked up by the grungy construction workers outside.

I want to put it back or throw it away and continue my search for a Luna bar. But what kind of social / legal consequences are there for throwing away an uneaten hot dog in the convenient store? How close do they monitor those cameras? I bet they are just waiting to nab a nice mom like me and then I will be late for preschool pick up.

So I pay for the hot dog and drink and head back to my car. Passing more than a couple of trash cans on the way.

Because now I have paid for good food. And like a good mom I know there are starving children in Africa who would love this, so I should be grateful.

And that bottle wasn't that sticky. The health department was sure to have just been here testing with their little thermometers and clipboards.

So I eat it.

Like a woman possessed.

Or at least like a stress eater.

PS-for those of you in Anchorage, the Scary part of the story happens when I tell you where I actually bought this delicacy: The Holiday on Muldoon... I know. Yikes.

peace

Amber and her boy Ammon photo courtesy Amber's Website

I have a friend in Perry who for the last 3 and some years has been battling stage 4 Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Her 5 children range from just older than Carter to Olivia's age. She and I were pregnant together this last round 4 years ago. And shortly after her baby was born came her Stage 4 diagnosis. They gave her 22 months.

She made it 42.

Last night she passed away.

We all knew it was coming. But it is still never easy to hear. I am sure the hardest thing about her battle was knowing she would be leaving her kids. They are a great family.

Read about her here. Please. Her example will change your life.

Bless you, Amber, now at peace.

Guess what!

Courtney and Blake hanging out on this day

I found out where Olivia gets her toilet paper fetish from! It is my one and only sister!

Now, my beautiful sister could have shared a number of things with me. Most importantly some of her 5' almost 7 inches. See all of the women in our family are about 5' 2" - 5' 4". Except for me and her. Except I am 5' 0" and she is almost 7 inches taller than me!!! She could have shared just 2 of those inches, and still been so much taller than me.

(you should see family pictures. My 3 brothers tower from 5'11" - 6'2+" with JaDee at 6 feet and Blake at 6'4"! I am always in the front. And usually alone unless one of my kids are with me...But now Katie will be joining me on the front row. Again, another reason to thank her for marrying Ben, besides that he is a pain :0)

And at 8 years younger than me she had to share a room with me. Ugh! When I was a teenager there was nothing worse than a baby sister in the bottom bunk. Except when she woke up in the night and wanted me to crawl in bed with her to help her feel better. Then it was OK.

In fact I used to take her to the park all the time. And while I did enjoy the little walks in pushing her in the stroller or holding her hand, I must admit I had an ulterior motive. See there were boys that also played basketball at the park. And I may or may not have had crushes on them.

I was also using the outing to get out of chores.

So when I was telling my mom about Olivia taking trash to school for show and tell she says, "Don't you remember Courtney with Kleenexes?"

Apparently Courtney used them as blankets for her little animals or tied them up as dresses for them and flew them around the house as well.

And a trip to our Grandmother's house was pure heaven for her. See Grandma matched her tissues to each room in the house. So we had pink, green, blue, peach and white to spice up the fashion shows. I guess she could empty a box of Kleenex faster than the average swine flu patient.

Me and Brooke back in April when I was there for Wicked.

I hope I gave my niece, Brooke, my love of Scotch tape. My mom has stories about that too....

And since I am feeling particularly homesick, for no apparent reason, enjoy these pictures of the most delicious baby!

picture full

Olivia with her dress I got for free at our Stake's clothing exchange and her Build a Bear, Zoe, the Zebra in her pink evening dress on the way to pre-school show and tell. Usually she tries to take her toilet paper "Flying Things." But to let her teachers know I buy my daughter real toys, and do not force her to play with trash, (like the grungy ribbon she brought the week before) I talked her into bringing Zoe.

I am getting better at Olivia's hair. I have been inspired by some little hair do blogs I keep stumbling across. One day we actually got it pretty cute and she wore a dress to pre-school so I snapped some pictures of my little girl growing up.

And our grand friends J and J with their 3 kids moved last week!! The witness protection program had to relocate them (j/k, but they do ask to remain anonymous on here) and we are SOOOO SAD!!! J was my shopping buddy, decorating buddy, and BFF in Alaska. I tell ya, if it wasn't for her, I totally would be living with my mother in law waiting for JaDee to get done with Alaska. And her kids were my boys BFFs as well. The games these guys came up with! Oh we are going to miss them.

Monopoly Marathons were a favorite all last winter with J's kids. We had one last hurrah hours before their plane took off. They have an interesting set of house rules that include auctioning off unclaimed property. Ethan seriously knows the whole board by heart. Next time you see him ask him the rent of Indiana with 1 house and I guarantee you, he knows what it is.

And the last time I put these decorations away was when we were getting ready to move.



I can't believe it was this time LAST YEAR that we were getting ready to turn our lives upside down. But all in all we are doing great here. We just miss you all so very much.


And my new favorite thing ever is this:


A Scentsy mini lite. When it comes to fall I love the smells. While damp leaves may smell good outside I want cinnamon, and cider and cloves inside. This totally does the job and my house won't burn down! For all of you in Perry Alyssa Braegger (Linda Bergeson's daughter) sells it. Highly recommended!

I hope you are not someone I visit teach because if you are seeing this now then you won't be surprised when I give you this for October's visit. I actually made these at Kaye's house this weekend.

And here is Olivia with a Flying Thing tied to an emery board. I think the Flying Thing in this picture is actually being a parrot with the "real" parrot she has in the other hand.

Luxury?

When I think of the word "luxury" I think of thick fur coats. A yacht. Maybe silverware that matched and cups without lids. Closets with enough space that my sheets fit like they do when Martha shows me how to fold them. Not jammed in there with the washcloths, place mats and a humidifier.

I don't think of being a stay at home mom as a luxury.

I heard this comment from a woman on the news who was returning to work as an attorney. She stayed at home for 11 years and now has 2 children in college and 2 still at home. She said in these economic times she was giving up some luxuries and that staying home was the one that had to go. I don't fault her for her returning to work. It is something I would like to do as well. And with 2 in college and 2 more to put through I certainly see where it would be a need. What I have been pondering is the term "luxury" in reference to staying at home.

And if it is not a luxury then what is it?

Luck? Priority? Need?

After mulling this word over in my mouth and heart i decided Need was it. Especially after the appearance of Stephanie Nielsen on Oprah this week. Find someone with DVR who has it and watch it. (I just found this link to Stephanie's lesson on being a mom from Oprah.)

Because besides being a plane crash victim who's life was changed forever in an instant, she is a stay at home mom and what gets her through the day is the stay at home stuff.

So I have been pondering my own stay at home stuff. And ultimately my needs.

I need to stay at home to get Carter to Jazz Band in the morning, the lunches made, a family prayer said and occasionally a scripture read. I need to wake Olivia up to smell her sweet baby smell that still lingers for those few seconds in the mornings from her warm bed. I need to laugh at Ethan as he comes downstairs with yet another outfit that he insists matches. And I need to send him back up to try again.

I need to be home when Olivia asks me to tape toilet paper on her bum to be a tail because she is a puppy. I need to snuggle with her and the cat as she tries to dress us both in dish towels as our long princess hair. I need to eat the play dough cookies and get out the paint shirt and brushes and tape up the masterpieces on the kitchen wall for Dad to see.

I need this.

To not have this would kill me. To not give my all to these kids would kill me. (not the house, mind you...I have UNO cards trailing down the stairs, laundry in every room in various stages of "done-ness" and no dinner in the oven...oh and strips of toilet paper from unsuccessful tail attachment all over the house. But no crumbs on the floor- I have a dog!)

This is for you...

Dear "Lay it Out Straight," (commenter on C Jane),

Most of the blogs I frequent are about families and the events in their lives. Most of these blogs are people I know personally and there are a few that I read that I do not know. Yet their interesting story compels me to follow along their blog. In response to your comments to C Jane about her sister's appearance on Oprah, I would like you to know that if I had a sister who survived a fiery plane crash, and was on the Oprah show, and if I had a tiny cameo in the story, I too, would post it on my blog. Because it would be something that happened to me. My friends and family might be interested in it. If other people care to read, that is fine too. That is why it is a blog. It is not conceited, prideful, or vain. It is life. And the life C Jane posts about happens to be full of a rather extraordinary event.

When was the last time you were on the Oprah show?

In response to her readers being zombies, who have nothing better to do with their lives, let me assure you we all do. And if the one thing we do is take 30 seconds to respond to a heart wrenching story about a girl who survives a plane crash and is scarred for life and leave a comment on her sisters blog, I wouldn't worry it. There are worse things we could all be doing. Although, I also have to wonder how much time you spend on her blog, seeing as how you made 2 comments. One could also wonder what else I have to do seeing as how I am now devoting a whole post to you.

In fact, let me go do those things now.

Deformed?

I am super excited about my newly remodeled gym. It opened last week and is bigger and better and brighter than ever. Hot instructor J is still there, (don't worry mother, my marriage is not in trouble I just like the drama/cliche of talking about it). And we have spin classes available. I am hoping to get to one this week and make it a regular part of my routine.

But I have a problem with earphones staying in my ears. I have tried 3 different brands of ear buds all claiming to stay in while jogging only to have them fall out. My solution has been to wear the wrap around kind that are a little big, so I seal them to my head with an elastic head band. I am sure I look like a super geek but it is the only way to run to Foo Fighters and read the closed captioning of Wife Swap at the same time. (I would have included a picture but I am not sure how to take a snapshot of the side of my head. Nor do I have the desire to figure it out. And really, do you want to see a close up of my sweaty ear?)

Does anyone else have this problem? I am the only one that I can see not using cute little ear buds in bright colors during their workout. But there has to be more of us deformed ear canal victims out there.

Please. Share your story here.

What a day

Today was one of those days where I just should have gone back to bed.

It started when I woke up to an abnormally cold house. I checked the thermostat and it read 58. And the heat switch was off. If that had happens a couple of months from now we will all die in our beds!! Sheesh people, we live in Alaska for crying out loud!

Then at the post office Olivia had to go potty. She ALWAYS has to use the bathroom in the post office. The problem is that post offices do not have public restrooms. Now the guy at our old post office let us use the private one in the back. But here we have to truck it across the shopping plaza to the restroom at the grocery store. Which of course is about as far away from the post office as you can get.

Oh and I had a 14 month old with me. Not in a stroller, so she was heavy all the way there and all the way back.

If it wasn't 23 degrees out today I would have taken Olivia to the bare patch of grass between the post office and the shopping center. Not that I would ever do that if it was warmer, but maybe other moms have had the same idea, since the grass is really green right there.

Then the post office lady was so rude!

And I spilled my really good hot chocolate that was supposed to turn my day around when I left the drive through.

And then I locked my keys and my groceries in the car in the driveway!!! Really, am I that stupid?

But at least the milk wouldn't spoil in the back.

what to write...

It has been a pretty slow week. And I am sure to get chastised by my sister for not updating the blog, so while taking boys to school this morning I racked my brain for a suitable topic.

And came up with the following:

A short dissertation on the Monroe Doctrine and how our Judicial system would have benefited from staying this course instead of looking to international law as an influence in Supreme Court cases (can you tell I am reading a book about the 11 years our Court went unchanged [1994-2005 our country did not get any new Justices on the Supreme Court, the longest unchanged bench in the history] and the 9 justices who made up that Court...Rehnquist, Scalia, O'Connor, Kennedy, Breyer, Thomas, Ginsbreg, Souter and Stevens).

A list of a few of my favorite things

What we did for dinner last night and the disaster it was (JaDee cooked via his "gift").

Gratefulness that all of you are now feeling a bit brisk in the air.

My most delicious nap that I was able to take yesterday.

I decided to spare you my political analysis and go with JaDee's dinner disaster as follows.

Our neighbor shot a moose a few weeks ago and shared the bounty with up in the form of its liver. When he presented this bit of flesh to us I didn't even invite him in but ran back to find JaDee leaving our guest with a bloody Ziploc bag full of moose organs on the stoop.

As I hid in the back of the house listening to the exchange over how tasty liver and onions would be made out of this gift, I could only hope it ended up forgotten in the back of the freeze as JaDee accepted this neighborly gift. Such hopes were dashed when I woke up from that aforementioned nap and I was asked what my plans were for dinner.

As I had nothing concrete started or even planned, JaDee whipped that liver out of the freezer and said he would fry this up.

I got out a big bowl of kashi cereal and went and folded laundry.

An HOUR later the starving kids were served this delicacy.

5 minutes after that I loaded the boys up to go to Carrs for Chinese buffet grocery store style.

Olivia followed her mother's example and had Trix.

My house still stinks.