Ready for a change!

I've decided I think I am going to be the most grateful out of all of us for the change of weather we're going to get on the cruise. Have you heard about our weather the last week and a half? With the constant rain, flooding all over the area, power outages (three times and counting at my house), and winds so strong it blows cars off the road and half my fence down (well, maybe not half, but several sections), I'm ready for a little fun in the sun!! So bring it on! Mexico, here I come!

Believe it or not, I'm actually really enjoying the wind. In fact, I'm liking it so much, it's my fizzy joy for the day! I love the way it makes everything smell clean. I love how refreshed I feel when it blows directly on my face. I even laughed today at how my hair was constantly getting caught in my lip gloss! Why did I even bother to put it on?

Am I crazy?

I just volunteered to start and run a new Enrichment group for my ward! I don't know what I was thinking. Except that I thought the idea was wonderful (thank you Mom!) and I really wanted to do it. I figured this was the only way it would get done, so I'm organizing it!

It's going to be a cooking group, but the way it's going to work is we're going to have a category for the month, and everyone is going to come having cooked something from that category. We can compare recipes, talk about what we've found that works and what doesn't, and have some kind of demonstration on the topic. At the end of the night you'll get to take home any of the recipes you want, and we're even looking into getting recipe notebooks to keep them all together.

Our first class is Thursday, December 14th at my house. Our topic will be Christmas candy. I'm actually really excited about this one, and I personally plan on making 3 or 4 different things. The women I've talked to about this seem really excited about it, so I hope it's as fun and successful as it sounds.

Future topics I've been considering: breads and rolls, casseroles, Mexican food, brownies, food storage, cookies, and cheesecake. Any other thoughts on what I can do? What would you like to see in a class like this? I've never done anything like this, so I'm a little worried about how to make it a success. I would love any thoughts any of you have!

Oh, I've also volunteered to start up a book club. It won't be under the umbrella of the Relief Society since our Stake President won't allow it, but my guess is it'll be almost entirely women from my ward. I'll have to deal with that when I get back from Mexico too!

Halloween

I forgot to blog on Halloween! I'll be brief, but in case you were wondering, here's a picture of my kids.

Rachel was a gogo dancer, complete with knee high boots (which she already owned). Rebecca was a cheerleader, a costume chosen over a princess costume. Tyler was a karate master, even though it's actually a tai kwan do outfit. Becca carried her pompoms for all of about 4 houses before she asked me to carry them. And they were all bundled up so much it was hard to see what any of them were! But Becca was really good about telling everyone at every house that she was a cheerleader. We walked around our entire neighborhood, which took a little over an hour. Their candy buckets were full! They whined and complained for at least half the walk, but by the time we got home, they said it had been lots of fun. Go figure.

We also got the little necklaces and bracelets that glow in different colors for my kids. This was the best thing I've done. Each kid was a different color, with a bracelet on each arm plus a necklace I could see from the front and the back. In times when they got caught up in large groups at a door, it was very easy for me to spot my own kids and keep track of them. It made the entire night much easier.

I didn't have the time that day to do the full Halloween dinner we usually do, so I came up with something a little different. Of course we did the spider dogs. My kids love those. But I also made "pumpkin cakes." It was just potato pancakes with food coloring added to make them orange. My kids loved it! And it was pretty simple to do. So if you're looking for something different to add to your Halloween dinner, this worked great.

That's my Halloween recap. It's not much, but at least you can see how cute my kids were!

Relief

I had sort of a rough week. Besides being busier than normal, my babysitter for the first half of the week of the cruise cancelled on me!! I was so upset I was almost in tears. I had 2 1/2 weeks until we were to leave and 4 days of no child care! So it's been stressful for me. But I am happy to report that I have solved that dilemma and I now have child care arranged for all 8 days we will be gone, as well as transportation to and from the airport! There are still a few minor details to work out, but overall the main issues are taken care of! I am so relieved. And I'm happy with the arrangements. I don't feel like I'm going to need to worry about my kids, who they're with, or if they're happy or being well cared for. So now I feel like I can finally be excited about the cruise! And we are. Very excited! We'll see you all in 2 weeks!

Fizzy Joys: Cheddar chowder, Halloween candy, a full moon, pumpkin candles, and new lip gloss.