The End of the Story

For some reason my computer wasn't computing very well this morning. And neither was I for that matter. So I forgot a couple of items concerning The Party. And I wanted to post a couple of the pictures. When the guests arrived they all put on their new t-shirts and we took a photo op on the staircase before dinner was served. Ashley was here to help me pull it all together. Thank goodness! While I was playing, she was cleaning up the kitchen and getting ready for the next activity. What a wonderful thing to have a daughter. I highly recommend having at least one. Another thing to come from the next mornings activities was a discovery that Sydney loves gardening with Grampa. She helped him plant all of the seeds and we are excited to say that all have come up and we will have salad shortly! And salsa!! Yeah! The extravaganza was all I hoped for and more. We started planning next year. With two more boys coming, we are leaning toward a camping theme! I have duly recovered now and I am making brown bag scrapbooks of the evening delights for each party attendee. I hope to have them all done by Halloween night for their treat bag! Wish me luck!

Success & Recovery

Now that's what I call a Party! All of the guests arrived within minutes of each other and boy, were they stoked. No one was going to be late for this night! We had our gourmet feast of Goblin Stew, monster eyes, Goblin Nuckles, Witch fingers, etc. To drink, it was Vampire Blood over Frozen Eyeballs. (Kaylie and Jade thought the dinner was their favorite thing.) After dinner, we played Man On The Moon, (Dawson's favorite thing about the night). Then we had a ghost hunt. I put words on the bottom of their treat buckets and place cards. (Those were little framed witches with each person's face in the frame. Cute!) Anyway, when I drew their word out of a sack, they got to go ghost hunting. I had hidden enough sacks decorated like ghosts around the house so each little witch and one warlock, too, could make two hunts. I had planned to do it randomly through out the night, but they wanted to do them all at once, so we did. Crafting was Sydney's favorite. We painted wooden pumpkins and decorated Chinese globe lanterns. (Just a side note. Only in Yuma do we have to turn on the swamp cooler in the garage so we can stand the heat at 9PM in October) My favoritne thing was sitting in the dark on the trampoline and each person got to tell a story. We went around the circle a few times and what a funny bunch of kids! We hooted and hollered and had so much fun! Dawson wanted to jump, though, while telling his stories and the girls were not that keen on the idea! We couldn't see very many stars as the moon was so bright. Around 10:30 or so, they all put their feet in the tub, washed away the cooties, and put their new Halloween socks on. Socks guaranteed make the weary bones sleepy. (Dawson removed his immediately following pictures.) He was the first to fall asleep however. We then put on the movie. First choice was The Night Before Christmas! BORING!!! So we tried Hocus Pocus! That was fun and some of the children hadn't seen it and those who had, it had been a long time. We were all entertained. We had popcorn and M&M's in our Monster Hand bags for our treat! Ashley brought donuts for a game we never got around to playing so in the morning, they became Zombie eyes for breakfast. We washed them down with Mummy blood that we turned chocolate with Goblin Poo for those who wanted it. While the kids played outside, I baked the cupcakes and then we had a frosting party. We had frosting from here to there and back, all mixed in with hundreds of sprinkles and sugar drops! Very Fun! I had planned to take everyone home by 10 but we were having too much fun. We wandered into the yard, the sand, and eventually, the water. When all were soaked and smelling much like the dog, I loaded them up in the back of the truck and delivered them to mommy, full of sugar and complete exhaustion! Ahh, I love being the Grandma!!!

Anticipation

Ignore the date in the corner of this picture. I forgot to reset the dang camera. This is the table I have been decorating today in anticipation of tomorrow's 3rd annual Halloweenie Sleepover. Expecting 6 little witches and a warlock too, for some of Grammy's Goblin Stew. If the kids have half as much fun as I have had planning this night, then we will call it stupendous. Will post a rundown on the events after we recover.

Thanks Jay

Hey thanks for opening this up. I am thinking of trying my own blog but will try posting here and see how that goes.

The Arrival

Now that I figured out how to get the picture onto the blog, I will try to copy the story.

Time is a funny thing, passing quickly one day and barely moving another. On this particular day, in December of 2002, the clock ticked in slow motion. Jared Dan, the youngest son of four and big brother to sister Ashley was coming home from Taiwan, after serving two years as a missionary.
All preparations for the excitement of the evening to come were done. The bedroom had been thoroughly cleaned from baseboards to ceiling fan. New sheets and pillows were on the bed. A cozy, manly blanket was folded across the foot and a new picture of a moose was on the wall. A cabin motif said, “Hello, welcome to your new space. We love you.” The minutes slowly ticked on.
We were to meet the 6 o’clock p.m. flight from L.A. His brothers had ordered Triple P pizza to be picked up on the way home from the airport. Of course they had his nickname, The Bull, spelled out in pepperoni. The minutes ticked on.
Carla, his babysitter from days of old was bringing the Welcome Home Elder Jerry sign to the house. We waited and waited. Amazingly, the minutes were now rushing by and the anxiety levels rose at about the same pace. After several phone calls and anxious conversations, it was determined that she had better meet us at the airport as the sign was not going to be finished by the time we needed to leave.
His dad was much too relaxed for my levels of adrenaline and I began to pace about, nagging that we had better be leaving now or we were going to miss him getting off of the plane. At last, the minute I had planned to be out of the house arrived and no one could stop me from getting in the car and driving like a maniac to the airport. We arrived about the same time as the rest of the family and began waiting the last half hour of a long two years. Soon I would have my youngest beloved son in my arms again.
My other three sons began to have some fun at my expense. About every 5 minutes one of them would say, “There it is mom, the plane is coming!” and I would cry, “Where, where, I don’t see it!” And everyone would laugh. I was biting my nails and snapping at everyone who came too close. Finally, the plane landed. Then I watched as each person deplaned, thinking the next one had to be the One. And the boys would say, “There he is, see him?” and I would say, “Where, Where, I can’t see him!” And they would laugh.
The last 5 minutes were the longest minutes in the history of my life. And then, by some miracle he was there, walking to me. The family fell back and my little boy, grown into this wonderful, handsome young man, was in my arms and we were hugging and crying. I ruffled his hair and kissed his sweet neck. And it was as if he had been born again and laid into my waiting arms. Only better this time, because I already knew him.
Carla showed up with the Welcome Home sign about 20 minutes after he arrived and I laughed. In minutes, we were home.

The Sport of Blogging
I have been toying with the idea, for some time now, of using this space to record some stories. I thought it might be fun. Then I did some volunteer training for Hospice and one of our assignments was to bring a photo into class and tell the story of that picture. The next time we came to class we were to have written a memoir of that story we shared. The idea behind the exercise was to help us help those who are dying to tell their stories if they chose. What came out of that exercise for me was a desire to write. And where else better to do that than this little space that no one ever reads. That way I won't have to worry about anybody being too harsh with their critiqueing. Is that a word? Anyway, I am determined to give this blogging sport a try. This is the picture that I took to class that day. I titled the story "The Arrival"