So I’m sure by now everyone is Halloweened out, ready to hide all the candy and costumes until next year (or for the Wiz, forever), but I have to say, it’s still one of my favorite holidays.  Especially when you can stretch it from Friday to Sunday (sick I know).   We even did the double costume thing for my daughter this year.  Cleopatra for the school parade and then the family did Alice in Wonderland with Princess playing the role of Alice. I was the Queen of Hearts, Tim Burton style.  Did I mention I love Disney?

But the real reason for this post is to announce our final winner for the Disney on Ice giveaway.  And the tickets go to, comment # 11, Alison Wonderland!  Now that’s irony for you! I swear that’s the post that random.org picked. Look for an email from me soon, Alison, and congratulations.

Now it’s time to start planning next year’s costumes and theme.  Any ideas?

I don’t know about your town, but our town is in full swing Halloween mode already. A parade at each of my kids’ schools and a neighborhood party tonight, which means treats treats and more treats. My kids were so excited about Halloween activities today, they barely ate breakfast this morning. Well, I think J got something down–maybe a cheese stick—but I’m fairly certain Little Sister ate nothing. Where was their mother, you ask? I was frantically trying to cobble together a Cinderella headband for my daughter’s Cinderella costume. Of course. Duh. Isn’t that what YOU were doing? (more…)

I came home from my run this morning hot and thirsty. It is disgusting weather here, very humid, but windy and overcast. I know, it seems impossible, but there it is. Par for the course for this time of year. Last Halloween, J got so hot trick or treating he ended the night shedding his costume completely and trick or treating in a t-shirt and shorts. People, bizarrely, still gave the child candy. Whatevs. (more…)

First I must apologize for getting this post out a little late.  It’s been one of those weeks.  Sick kids, marathon court hearings, presenting at a conference in Moab for 2 days and then spending the weekend at the hospital with my dad’s wife who broke her femur rolling over in bed wrong (insert gentle reminder to take your calcium here).

But as they say in “the biz”, the show must go on.  So thanks to random.org, the winner of week three is …. (drumroll)…. comment number 12, Emily C.  Congratulations Emily, look for an email from me soon.

Because it’s been one of those weeks, I couldn’t really come up with a good trivia question for Lilo & Stitch, so guess what?  You get to do it!  Think of a good trivia question or just tell me what your favorite scene or character was and we’ll go from there.  You’ve got 4 tix to Disney on Ice waiting for you! 

The no-good, terrible, awful holiday that is Halloween is on a Sunday this year.

How is this handled where you live?

Can you balance a golfball on your head, or rake a yard in under 10 minutes, or craft a super cute crafty cover for your mailbox? We’re talking about mad skillz today over at Segullah, so come chat with us if you’ve ever wanted credit for being able to unclog the garbage disposal.

I’ve got a little arts and crafts project for you. Stay with me, we’re getting there in a round about way.  Okay, now let’s head to the market.  You’re going to need a jar of Nutella, some ground beef, a turquoise  blue sharpie, two honeydue melons (get ‘em good and big) and a bottle of cold water.  You qualify for the express lane, I’ll see you when you get home. (more…)

As anybody who has been reading this blog more than a minute knows, I went to Haiti this summer, sans husband and children, with a group called Sustain Haiti.  Most of my days were filled with dirt and compost and gardens, as I elected to spend my time teaching sq foot gardening and working with people in the ward and the community.  But not everybody who went to Haiti with our group got as excited as I did about compost.  A lot of them elected to work with the 4 orphanages that Sustain Haiti connected with in Leogane. (more…)

Wow you guys are really good!  There are some serious Disney fans competing for my title and I love it.  I saw a video blurb on Disney’s web page talking about making cotumes for the Disney on Ice show and I got even more excited to see it! 

O.K. down to business.  The lucky winner for week 2 is comment # 11, Annette L.  Congrats to Annette, look for an email from me soon.

As for this week’s trivia question, I’ve been trying to think of something a little more challenging.  Not that I want to make it too hard, I mean, we really do want to give away tickets! So I’m going to give you two choices just to make it fun! This week we’ll do Lion King.  Great movie, great animation, fun music and a really great stage show!  I saw it this summer for the first time and was completely transfixed! I mean, for all you Patrick Page junkies, I didn’t get to see him play Scar on stage, but it was still pretty good if you ask me.  I can’t wait to see how they do it on ice! So here we go…

Question 1:  What was the name of Simba’s girlfriend and what celebrity gave her daughter the same moniker?

Question 2:  Can you name the three hyenas?

Dear soccer coach:

When soccer is supposed to be from 5:30 to 6:30, we moms don’t like when you show up at 6 and then work the kids until 7:30.  Especially if we happened to choose to feed the child after soccer.  Usually you are very on time and aware of this.  What’s up this week?

Sincerely,

Starving Mom of Starving Child (more…)

I’m not the world’s greatest cook.  Nor do I get much of a kick out of meal preparation, but I do my best to prepare descent dinners for my family throughout the week.

I have a rotation of meals that I know my family will eat, and sometimes even ask for seconds – veggie lasagna, port tacos, pumpkin chili – but generally those take some advance grocery shopping and time.  When I am down to the bare bones of my pantry and refrigerator goods, I know I can count on the following meals to get me thru dinner time as I ALWAYS have these items in my back pocket – and they are quick and inexpensive! (more…)

I’ll admit it. I’m addicted to Facebook. It’s almost as bad as my blogging addiction I had a few years ago. I used to think that I got over my blogging addiction, and I was all, “Yeah, I’m totally off the blog, dude” until I realized that I had just replaced my one addiction with another. Like the alcoholic mother in ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’ (which is, like, SO 90s, but still, such an awesome flick) who replaces drinking with smoking cigarettes, I had simply replaced blogging with Facebook. And sadly, right now, I think I’m okay with that.

(more…)

We are proud to announce that Whatsherbucket gave birth to a healthy baby girl this weekend, 7lbs 6oz. No name yet, but baby and Momma are doing great. Hooray for babies! Congrats for gettin’ through it, Whatsherbucket!

The lucky winner in last week’s giveaway to the Disney on Ice show is comment #55, lawcowgirl4.  Congratulations!  Now on to this week. 

As I stated in my last post, The Little Mermaid is one of my all time favorite shows.  I love the story (even if it isn’t true to the original) and love the music.  So to make this week’s trivia question a little harder, you’ll need to know the lyrics to the songs. Ready?

How many thingamabobs did Ariel have in her collection?

Post your answers in the comments and I’ll pick another winner after 5:00 p.m. next Friday.  Good Luck!

Ok, then.  The CAPD diagnosis is FINALLY official.  Whew.  The screening was fascinating to watch, but a little cringe inducing at times, especially when they would ask him to repeat what was just said, and not only were his responses not in the same ball park, they didn’t even make much sense.  (more…)

For anyone who knows me, you know I am a Disney freak!  Besides owning practically all of the movies in some sort of format, as well as assorted paraphenalia and costumes, I made my DH take me to Disney World for our honeymoon and bought Disney stock for my children’s college fund.  We even try to make it to Disneyland at least once a year.  It’s my happy place.

I thought the circus tickets were cool, but you can imagine how excited I was to have the opportunity to get tickets to the Disney On Ice show this year to give away on our blog!  This year’s show is Mickey & Minnie’s Magical Journey which includes four beloved Disney stories: Lilo & Stitch, The Little Mermaid (my favorite), The Lion King and Peter Pan!  It will be at the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City  November 11-14, 2010.

We have four sets of tickets (family 4-packs) to giveaway.  But rather than do it all at once, I think I’ll drag it out.  One set per week! I will randomly select a winner from your answers to the trivia questions (thank you random.org) every Friday after 5:00 p.m.   Good Luck! 

This week’s question…. What was the name of the Indian Princess in Peter Pan?