Halloweekend!

Here at BYU people like make a big deal out of Halloween, and generally people have celebrations the whole weekend before Halloween. Both Rico and I were fortunate enough to go to one such celebration, a dance party hosted in part by Rico's roommate Kevin. Here's a picture of us afterwards! I was an 80's Barbie and Rico was the sheriff from the show "Walking Dead," he could probably tell you more about it. Sydney was a medieval princess if you can't guess! Anyway, it was a lot of fun dressing up. Happy Halloween, hope you all have a fabulously scary day tomorrow!

Trunk or Treat

Dad and I are on Mercer Island right now and last night was one of our favorite nights of the year - the famous MI Ward Trunk or Treat Party. It's where the whole ward shows up in costume and eats Halloween food and plays games and then goes outside to pass out candies from their decorated car trunks to all the little trick or treaters.

For Halloween junkies like myself it's a night to look forward to. One year John went as Darth Maul and Rico as the young Obi-Wan. They tried to talk Rach into going as Princess Amidala but she refused and went as a hippie instead. She regrets that decision to this day :) BTW - all the little kids were deathly afraid of Darth Maul so they had a hard time taking candy from him. So John and Rico had to eat it all. And the year Rico went as 'Rico' was another very memorable Trunk or Treat.

For the last - I swear - TEN YEARS!! - I've either been in charge of this fabulous evening of entertainment or at least a major part of it. It's always an unbelievable amount of work organizing food, games, decorations publicity, etc for a party for 100. So it felt sooo good last night showing up with only one little assignment - and that was to bring our big black plastic cauldron to use as a punch bowl. It was a really relaxing evening!

I'm Blind! I'm Deaf! I Wanna be a Ref!

Back in high school I was a referee for the Murray Parks and Recreation soccer leagues. I also refereed flag football. I continued to do so in college, becoming a referee supervisor later on. Refereeing is always something I've enjoyed, even if that seems a bit masochistic. Making sure the game is played completely fair is something I like doing, and if that means taking a couple of boos from the crowd from what they perceive is a bad call, so be it.

Julian and Caleb have started playing soccer for AYSO. One of the requirements for each team is that they help provide volunteer referees for the games. At Ian's suggestion, I decided to get back into the refereeing game; not only for Julian and Caleb, but at the higher levels as well.



Here's me in my referee uniform. Lindsay says I look handsome. You be the judge, but remember that her opinion holds much more weight in my mind ;)



Here's me in action. Julian's admiring my amazing skills here too!

FYI, the post title is a soccer chant when a call goes against the home team.

Pumkin Craft!

With Pumpkin time upon us I couldnt resist sharing this way cool craft that's fun for any age. My lead teacher taught this with our 2nd graders and I thought it looked so fun that I made one too! And when that wasn't enough, I also tried it with my Kinders in the afternoon. It is so fun!

Here's a link to copy into your browser for clear instructions. It talks about symetrical faces in general though-
http://www.mathwire.com/geometry/symmetricfaces.pdf

So I posted this pic (above) of what it can look like as a pumpkin! You can do any shape for the whole pumpkin and the eyes, mouth and nose!

Autumn Golf

Golf in October is bonus in Edmonton, unlike some other areas of the world. We have had an exceptionally nice September and October this year.

I guess this is payback for a brutal spring and summer. The days have been sunny, the leaves have been spectacular, and even the golf swing has been above average.

Looks like we'll just keep playing until the snow flies!

Love to all,

Gramps

Anne with an e

I have been re-reading my beloved Anne of Green Gables Books which I have held onto since I was a kid. One reason (I rarely re-read books,) is because I was also rewatching the Anne of Green Gables TV series which has conveniently been recorded on our direct TV. I wanted to see how true the series hold to the books. I fount that although the series is great overall, they do mix up a few things compared to the actual story- for example, in the fourth book they combine three characters into one and rearrange the chronology, not to mention they change key elements of the plot entirely, like the way Gilbert and Anne get engaged (third book)- But overall I dont have many complaints. I cant blame them for avoiding introducing too many characters. The crux of the story is told well (that Anne is an orphan but finally gets a loving home,) that Matthew and Marilla are the kindest people, and that Anne is not too bad herself. The acting is also quite good.

As for the books, they still beat out the series- which is my usual vote: the book over the movie. They can just fit in so much more description and the thoughts the characters have. I love these books. I love Anne's character. She's so colorful -I love her obsession with puffed sleeves, and she has such a huge heart. The stories are littered with times when she helps others regardless of the huge sacrifices required. I love it when she gives a friend a day off from watching her invalid Mother, loans her a dress and everything, allowing her to attend a friend's anniversary celebration...

There's one quote that I like and that reminded me of the discussion we had at our recent book club. We were talking about Aron Ralston- the guy who amputated his arm to get out of a rock and a hard place- the book '127 Hours'- he sorta let his passion for hiking run wild- without taking precautions, and found himself stuck in a tough predicament. Anne says to her daughter in the last book, 'my dear foolish dear, an imagination is a wonderful thing to have. But like every gift we must possess it and not let it possess us.' Anyway, there's Anne. A nice, fun, and calming read, even better than the TV series.

Death by Chocolate

Just wanted to share the ridiculous chocolate cake I made last night. I promised some people in my ward and someone that I work with that I would make this cake I found for them. It was really fun to make! One piece pretty much had you knocked out by too much richness though! The fun thing about it is that you can kind of do whatever you want to make it as chocolatey as possible. Linds, I bet you especially would like this cake!
http://artofdessert.blogspot.com/2011/10/chocolate-wasted-cake.html Here's the link to the recipe if any of you are so inclined to try it.

CHINA

China is going down as one of our best trips ever - still trying to process all that was there - thousands of years of culture and history and people all in two weeks. Here's just a sample. I'd be more than happy to show you more where these came from!

Near Beijing - the Great Wall - you can hike on it or right beside it for 1500 miles.

Tianamen Square - just outside the Forbidden City. There weren't any signs forbidding photos, (unless they were in Chinese?) but maybe this guard was contemplating why there weren't.

The skyline in Shanghai - OJ's favorite place.
Thousands of warriors in Xi'an. When he was only thirteen years old the emperor ordered them made for his tomb. That's planning ahead. It took about 70,000 craftsmen several decades to create them. Each is life size and unique.
6:30 AM In Hangzhou on the banks of West Lake. I thought this was a fabulous way to start off your morning - a little tai chi by the water with all your friends.

The Lijiang River cruise with its beautiful and unique mountain range was a highlight for us.

Our group stopped in Hong Kong for a couple days on the way home and in lieu of little grandsons, there just happened to be two other mouseketeers in the group and this is where we ended up :)

It goes without saying that our first choice would have been to have each of you as travel companions but this group of friends was wonderful too. We feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to see and learn so much of such an amazing country.