Fall is Here – Part 2

Last night I broke out the Fall decorations for the table.  What sings FALL more than a horn of plenty???  I don’t know either.  And who thought of putting the plenty in a horn?  And why a horn?  What type of horn did they plentify?  Makes me wonder, that it does.  So, I don’t really collect Precious Moments, per se.  But I do have a nice little collection for the Fall table with Indians and Pilgrims sharing the bounty, even though they didn’t have a horn for their plenty.  The Mamas on the back of the napkin holder both have tears falling from their eyes…. so thankful.  Been there.  Done that.  I also have the candlesticks, but alas, there were no candles to be found last night at 11:43, so they’re still in the box. 

One day I would like to add to my Fall table arrangement one of my favorite Precious Moments pieces titled, Brotherly Love, which is pictured on the salt and pepper shakers.  It’s just so cute with the gigantic drumstick.

My husband is of Canadian First Nations Native Indian descent (politically correct enough???) and I’m as pilgrim-white as they come. I’ve had these same decorations appearing on my table for over 15 years now.  Once when the display was displayed my daughter looked at each little piece and noticed each little detail that her little eyes could behold.  (Like mother, like daughter.)  She got a sad look on her chubby little face and told me that she felt sorry for me.  “WHY?” I asked.  “Because you’re the only one in our family who is only half-Thanksgiving.”  Meaning: my husband and kids are all Indian and Pilgrim… I’m just a pilgrim.  So thoughtful.  Next time I’m filling out a questionnaire that inquires of my nationality I’m writing “half-Thanksgiving.” 

 

Fall is Here – Part 1

Sign of Fall: The apples have been harvested.  Somewhere.  Not at our house, but I did reap the benefits of someone harvesting apples somewhere.  They were on sale at Fry’s for 99 cents a 3 lb. bag.  How can you resist that?  I don’t know either.  I got four bags.  And since I’ve been consumed with reading Amish stories lately I had visions of apple butter, dried apple leather and apple pie and the such.  Jah!  Late last night, I dug through the crock pot cookbook and found plenty of Amish-like apple recipes.   I chose Spicy Chunky Apple Sauce… and it simmered all night long.  I looked forward to waking up just to smell the spicy goodness.  A big glop was added to my morning oatmeal (as well as a spoonful of flax seeds left over from Terry’s waffles) and it was scrumptious.  Made me feel domestic too.

I wish I had the little gizmo I’ve seen on tv that swiftly and effortlessly turns dough and apples into baked little half-moon pies.  Or am I thinking of he PB&J sandwich maker?  Anyway,  some dough is needed or crumble crust for the next step in this apple extravaganza going on here currently.

One Fall we took the kids up to Sedona and Slide Rock State Park.  Where the park is today used to be an apple orchard complete with a huge old barn were they processed the apples.  I remember the kids being surprised that they could just pick apples from the trees and eat them… bypassing the migrant workers, packers, truck drivers, food handlers, grocers and Mom.  It was comical. 

Anyway, enjoy the bounty of the gardens and orchards this Fall!

“It’s Keeve again!”

That’s my boy signing his name on the wall at the Shelby plant in Vegas…. circled blue ink… “Keeve #5 Crosby” with a thumbs-up drawing!

Rick and I went out to lunch today (to Chipotle, if ya had to know.) While we were there Keeve called us four or five times.  He was supposed to be doing his math, piano and chores.  He was a bit distracted by the thought of us being across the street from Walmart…. where so many of his immediate needs could be so easily met.  We bought him blank DVDs last night, but alas, we got the wrong ones.  So he needed the CD-R kind.  Fine.  That was Call #1.

Call #2 was because we are fresh out of fresh strawberries… which Keeve uses every single day of his life to make fruit smoothies.  (See this post for more smoothie news:  http://mysistersjar.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/bonus-points-for-kid-3/ (Jennie, you need to teach me how to do the CLICK HERE links.)  So strawberries were added to the list.

Call #3…. “Moooooom, do I have to do my spelling today?”  (which requires mother’s assistance).  “No, we’ll do it tomorrow, son.”

Call #4…. “Daaaaaad, when we were in Walmart in Las Vegas, Mom said I could get a plastic blue pumpkin head to keep my candy in.  Can you please get me a plastic blue pumpkin head?  They are only $1.”  I verified the story and the plastic blue pumpkin head was added to the list, which by this point had actually become a written list.

Call #5 was received in Walmart, just to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything on Keeve’s all important, I’ll-just-die-if-you-forget-something list. 

Sadly, Walmart was out of plastic blue pumpkin heads… but not strawberries or CDs.  WHEW!  What in the world did we do before cell phones?

While I’m Waiting

Lyrics by John Waller

I’m waiting
I’m waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I’m waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I’m waiting
I will serve You
While I’m waiting
I will worship
While I’m waiting
I will not faint
I’ll be running the race
Even while I wait

I’m waiting
I’m waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I’m waiting on You, Lord
Though it’s not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I’m waiting
I will worship while I’m waiting
I will serve You while I’m waiting
I will worship while I’m waiting
I will serve you while I’m waiting
I will worship while I’m waiting on You, Lord

*********

Waiting is not on my top ten things that I love to do.  I don’t think it’s even in my top 100.  Getting married has caused me to learn patience while waiting.  Having children increased my patience still further.  Adopting has caused me to wait beyond what I thought was capable… especially when it is completely out of my hands.  But with recent happenings in our lives, we are now waiting for the Lord to show us a new home church.  We have not been homeless church people for over 10 years.  We’ve never really looked for a church before, other than moving to a new town, city, state or country.  It’s a new sort of lostness.  Unconnectedness.  Loneliness.  And it requires more WAITING.  Waiting is not on my top ten things that I love to do.

Finding a new church involves so many different facets: beliefs, values, convictions, morals, ethics, and good ol’ female intuition.  I haven’t had to face these feelings and decisions for so long, and it’s a painfully slow process as each Sunday approaches and passes. With teenagers, we have to be careful as parents to find the support system that they are in need of at this crucial time.  I’m drawn to family integrated churches that include the children in corporate worship.  I’m also drawn to the idea of all ages being taught the same principle from the same scriptures… enabling family discussions to be meaningful and impactful.  (Is that a word?)

Here is a clip from the movie Fireproof with John Waller’s song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3b2jw1rjBc

So for now, I will serve you while I’m waiting.  And I will worship while I’m waiting.  Patiently I will wait.

My Baby Girl is 16!

This has been the week of the 16th birthday that will go down in the Crosby Hall of Phame.   I hope the boys don’t remember all that we did this week when they turn 16!  It started with birthday shopping for the right outfit!  Check!  (as seen above….. thanks, Dad and Mom!)  Then as all good homeschooling families, we tied four field trips into two days including two shows in Vegas.  I’m still exhausted, but it was fabulous!

We started early Wed. morning with a tour of the Hoover Dam (just what all 16 year old girls have on their birthday lists!)  It was highly entertaining due to the company we kept.  (See the video on FB)  The dam tour was closely followed in cultural importance by the tour of Ethel M Chocolate factory!  Whoooo Hooooo!  THAT was yummy.  Not to mention the botanical gardens right out the door from the chocolates.  See how much Larisa enjoyed it:

(Special guest appearance by Mary.)

Then the FUN began.  We checked into our hotel and prepared for the evening’s festivities…. Phantom of the Opera.  Back in the day, when I was 15, Larry was our music minister at our church in California.  Well, today, much to Larisa’s joy and thrill, Larry is Ubaldi Piangi in Phantom.  He royally hooked up Larisa with the make-up artist of the show and she got to go backstage and sit with the Phantom while he got purtied up for the performance.  AMAZING!

The costumes for Phantom were totally over the top!  That’s Larry in his $8K fat suit.  He was hilarious.  Every time he came on stage I laughed before he even sang or acted…. he’s so perfect for that part! If that wasn’t enough…. Larry found us after the show and took us up on the stage and explained all the fancy shmancy props hanging everywhere above the sides of the stage.  (It probably has a theatrical name that he told us, but I was busy looking around for frayed ropes.)  Amazing show!

Day #2:  (Larisa’s actual 16th birthday.)  Rick, the boys and I went to tour the Shelby manufacturing plant while Larisa slept in.  She refused to go to a car factory on her birthday.  :o)  Whatever, little princess!  Then the boys went swimming before they dropped off Larisa and I at the Belagio to see the fabulous sights and window shop at the exorbitant shops.  WOW!  Larisa chose the Hard Rock Cafe for her birthday dinner and we were seated on the balcony overlooking the strip.  (And can I just make a thumbs up comment for Las Vegas cleaning up their billboards and taxi signs.  We haven’t been there for 6 years and it is WAY more family friendly now.)

The evening wrapped up with The Lion King show.  And can I just say that their costume designers are some of the most creative people!  If you can go see Lion King…. GO!  And pay more to sit in the front so you can really see all the details in their amazing costumes. 

The evening ended at 11:00 p.m. with McDonald’s ice cream, a birthday song and a gift unwrapping in the Albertson’s parking lot.  WOW.  We arrived home at 4:00 a.m. and I actually drove the last three hours!  Thankfully I uncovered my Lakewood CD and sang two times all the way through it.  I love that album.  And why do we still call them albums?

Friday night, we had a sleep over/tie dye/birthday party for Larisa…. see why I’m exhausted?  What a GREAT week.  And please, no one mention all this to my boys from 2011 on.

Handwriting 101

So, on the spur of a moment thought while driving north on I-17, I swerved across a lane of traffic to exit for Walmart.  Wally’s World… it solves so many of life’s daily issues…. and has the ambiance of the state fair for your viewing pleasure.  My main thought was “cabbage”…. because there are currently two heads of cabbage in the fridge which I keep purchasing because our family eats CCS  (Chinese Chicken Salad) at least once a week.  The dilemma:  no chicken has materialized at the Crosby home for at least three weeks.  Hence, the swerve and the W-Mart run. 

Larisa was with me as we bee-bopped into the friendly world of helpful souls clad in navy shirts and tan pants.  At the Crosby home, there is a magnetic list on the side of the fridge where needed and even wanted grocery items are listed for such a time as this.  Unfortunately, because this was not a premeditated trip, the magnets were still holding the list on said refrigerator. 

So, with my hot pink cell phone, I called home to have one of my sons (whom I taught to read) relay the list to me while I stood in the produce section of WM.  Keeve answered the phone.  He was my easiest non-reading pupil.  Somehow, he just naturally READ….. and I helped a bit.  There were only four items on the list… he slowly read, “lard, …. um… I can’t read that one…. um…. A-C-E-T-A-M-I….”  “Acetaminophen,” I interrupted his spelling bee recitation.  “OK, yeah…. top ramen…. Mom, I really can’t read the other one.”  Yes, I had written it myself.  I remember writing it… but I couldn’t remember what it was.  So I asked him to spell it.  “Um….. g…v…  your writing is really messy on this word.”  “Yeah, yeah, keep spelling, please.”   “OK, Um… g… v.. i…h..t…e..m.  That’s what it looks like, mom.”  

“Is Austin right there?  Can you please have him read it?” While he was locating his brother, I found a scratch piece of paper in my purse and wrote down GVIHTEM to try and figure out what it was that I had written so messily.  Larisa suggested, “Write it fast and then squint to read it.”  hahahaha  I did, but it didn’t help.  Aus came to save the day… well, sort of.  “Mom, I can’t read what you wrote.”  “Then please spell it, son.”   “OK, GVLTEM.”   “Thank you, see you later,” I replied.    I gave up at that point and went to find lard, pills and noodles.

I couldn’t wait to get home to read my messy handwriting.  Ok, I laughed… the word they spelled over and over was the FIRST word of a double word item on the list…. even if they couldn’t read the first word, the second word was CRACKERS!  And the first word started with a G…. graham crackers, of course!  And my writing wasn’t THAT bad.  I could read it.  Sheesh.

Last Night was a GAS…. the good kind.

We drove and drove and drove out to Surprise, AZ to see Tim Hawkins at Radiant Church.  It was supremely HiLaRiOus!  Oh, my tummy is tender this morning from laughing so hard last night.  A couple weeks ago, I saw him perform at the D6 conference, so a lot of the material was the same…. it’s just so stinkin’ funny even the second time around.  One new topic he brought up that just made us split a gut was GAMES… of today and yesterday.  He talked about his kids having all kinds of electronic stuff… and what did we have?  Nothing!  Each other!  Remember the game “Stare at the lightbulb”… and then closing your eyes for your own light show in your head.  I’m not even sure if my kids know you can do that? 

He also talked about the myriad of things we did as kids… and we’re ok.  We rode bikes without helmets.  We ate trans fats.  We drank out of the hose.  We rode in the Stationwagon without seatbelts.  We took candy from strangers… and it was delicious.  hahahahaha

I’ve not heard the extent of his guitar abilities until last night, and he is simply amazing.  Wow!  Anyway, if he’s in your area, GO SEE HIM!  And if he’s not, watch all his videos on youtube.  We’ve spent many a Tim Hawkins family night in front of the computer screen.  Good, clean, rich humor.  Five out of five stars.

Post Office Rules…

are not to be taken lightly.  I think it was because of the holiday yesterday, but the line at the post office was out of control this afternoon.  I’m a regular at this little out-of-the-way USPS in Anthem.  The line, at most, has never been more than five people long.  There are usually two if not three tellers.  So it’s never more than a 15 minute visit.  Today’s load of eBay parcels was seven strong, with one being very heavy!  So Larisa came with me and we left the swine twins at home to cough on each other.  (Their fevers did break and they are well enough to fight over who is going first on the wii …. so I felt alright leaving them for a bit.)

Enter the crazy line at the post office.  Seriously, there were at least 15 people in line.  I love watching people and today was no exception.  There was a darling little brown-eyed girl who just couldn’t keep herself from spinning and dancing in her cute little pink shoes.  She showed us her pink underwear too, much to her mother’s horror.  So cute!

There were two different ladies, one a 65 year old woman and the other an 18 year old tall, thin hoop player, who were behind me a few folks back.  Both were visiting the post office to pick up a parcel.  I knew this because they came in carrying the flimsy pale orange cards.  I let them know that they didn’t have to wait in line (being an expert on postal procedures and all.) They could knock on the blue half door and IF someone was back there, they could pick up their parcels quickly.  They knocked and knocked.  No one answered, so they took their respective places back in line. 

About 15 minutes later (I was now #8 in line) a postal working lady did indeed open the blue half door and ask, starting at the front of the line, if anyone was just picking up… NOT sending something out.  So the two ladies and two other gentlemen went and lined up in front of the blue half door…. in the same order they were in line.

The postal working lady was obviously of the rule-following sort because she instructed the three people behind #1 to get back in the big line where they had just come from.  So, with perplexed and “she’s crazy” looks on their faces, they obeyed.  The postal lady closed the blue half door to retrieve the first parcel and the folks in line burst out laughing, including Larisa and I.  The tall girl said something to the effect of “What difference does it make if we line up at the door?”  A guy in the back sarcastically said, “There are rules to follow! And the line is a BIG deal!”  And we all laughed again. 

One by one the postal lady called the people from the line and helped them.  And we all laughed every single time she shut the blue half door to get the packages.  I’m sure she could hear us.  We never did figure out the whole deal.  But rules are made to be followed!  And postal workers are paid to enforce the rules!  So don’t try any funny stuff next time you’re at the post office.  It won’t work.

Two Little Piggies

I’m not sure which of my boys licked the pig first, but both Aus and Keeve are down with the Swine Flu.  Great!  Fevers.  No appetites. Coughing.  Headaches.   I made jello and smoothies.  I bought chicken-n-stars soup and Goldfish crackers.  All should be well soon.

On the brighter side of sickness, homeschooling is canceled for the week!  And the homeschool mother cannot quit smiling.  :o)   And we’re saving money by not having to feed the boys full meals.  AND there were $10 gift card coupons in the paper for EACH prescription filled!  Whoooo Hooooo $20!!!  

We are quarantined for 5-10 days depending on their fevers.  I felt like the neglectful mother in the doctor’s office.  (Not the first time that has happened.)  He asked when the last Tylenol was administered.  Um, 8 hours ago.  And yes, both boys had fevers over 102.  Rick was left in charge for the afternoon …. but I should have checked on them when I got home.  We’ll do better from here on out.

So, can you say eBay?  I should be able to get ALL of the adoption media drive donations on eBay this week.  :o)  Another silver lining to the pink piggy cloud.

See you next week.  Don’t bother coming by the house.

One Weekend!

Seems I missed quite a few activities while I was away for four days!  Larisa and her father attended a Pride and Prejudice ball in Regency Era regalia.  Oh boy, did I miss out on preparations for this entertaining event.  Rick decided to escort his daughter the day before I was leaving town…. so I did nothing but give instructions over the phone.  I did call my sister, who is here nursing my mother, and gave suggestions and was much relieved that costumes and hair were in her capable hands. 

On Friday night I got a call from our youngest son, Keeve, half in distress.  He explained, “Mom, we’re in Walmart and dad is buying a shirt for himself from the girls department and the brand name is Miley Cyrus.”  I laughed.  He cut the ruffle off of the front and hot-glued it to his $3 Goodwill shirt and on the cuffs.  Actually, I think Christy may have done the gluing.

Then, don’t laugh, Rick wore my white cotton capris and tucked them into knee length socks that he bought also at Walmart.  He donned a dark dinner jacket and Larisa found some black and white checked fabric from my stash and Christy turned it into a cummerbund with some folds and safety pins. 

Larisa wore my mother’s 1978 Gunne Sax dress that I added blue ribbon to and Auntie Christy saved the day by curling and pinning up her hair.  I really do need to post some pictures for your viewing pleasure.  I’ll see if they have any available.  YES!!!

ALSO, Keeve starred in his first ever flag football game as the winning quarterback!  I can’t wait to go see him play next Saturday!  Three touchdown passes and 3 other passes for something else, because they don’t kick field goals.

ALSO AGAIN, Rick was given three GREAT tickets for the opening game of the Phoenix Coyotes… but it was the same night as the ball where he wore his wife’s white pants.  So Grandpa took the boys and they got free shirts and pompoms because it was a white-out at the game.  The Coyotes lost, but they had a great time…. eight rows from the glass!

Mom’s home.  Back to normal boring life!  hahahahaha