Rise and Shout

Dedicated to Cookie who had to call her Uncle to bail her out.

Okay so I have been looking at these pictures for a month now. I haven't really felt like myself since I had the baby.... months ago. This (baby)time has been really hard physically and mentally so I haven't felt very funny. I wanted to wait till I could do this story justice. I can't wait any longer.....

Picture it BYU a "few" years ago (shut up I know that it was more than a "few" but nobody likes a smart-alec) I am a young, vibrant, devastatingly, intelligent, sophomore waiting for my missionary to come home and fulfill my destiny. It is Homecoming Week and all of us are excited about the football game the next day. We have season tickets luckily we got great seats for the game. While laying on my cinder-block stacked bed, listening to Faithfully by JOurney for the gazillionth time, my roomie comes in and says, "Wouldn't it be fun to wear a cape with a giant letter Y on it to the Football Game tomorrow?" HMMMM, I think, the possibilities are endless... face painting, pretend flying, oh what fun. I say "yep I'm in." Then she says that the flags that are flying around campus would be great. Just the right size to do the trick.I think yep she's right. Homecoming Week offered many possible targets. Do you have a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? Yeah any normal person would. They would know that where our little pea brains were going that night was not good, NOT GOOD at ALL. But away we went anyway. First we walked around campus and around town looking for the "best" flag to kaiph (k-i-f). The plan was to take a flag have our way with it and then return it the next night. Honestly none of us were going to keep the flag we knew THAT would be stealing. I was dating the Elders Quorum President and in the Relief Society Presidency at the time stealing was out of the question. The one I wanted to borrow was was the GIGANTIC one on the front of the Mazor building, but the girls thought that our sleuthing skilz weren't adequate to acquire that one. So we set our sights on one a little lower. It was on a telephone pole that was next to a tree on University Parkway. The poor flag never knew what hit him.

First we dressed up. Anyone knows that you have to get dressed appropriately. Dark colors so no one could see us in the dark. For later expeditions we progressed to camouflage, but I digress. And we needed equipment. Gloves to climb with and rope. NO rope so we tied some very fashionable belts together. That's me on the far left Bunny, Trixie, Candy, then Cookie. Code names for boys who we didn't want to be able to find us in the BYU directory for various reasons.
Once the flag had been located we stood around it looking up at it. I think there were about 8 in our group. NOt conspicuous at all. Then one by one we all tried to climb up the pole. I don't want to sound prideful but I was the only one who could do it. I guess it was all the pole dancing they taught us in those AP classes in high school. I shimmied right up that telephone pole and here's the proof. Those are my varsity soccer sweats from high school. I loved those sweats.
I think I was actually a love child from a Tongan prince that my mom met in the grocery store. That explains the easy climbing of trees and poles.
Then the celebration. Back at the homestead with Tad (he got one by standing on the hood of his car at a different location. He didn't want to be outdone by a girl.
The victory dinner at Hardee's. It was open the latest and had killer fry sauce. That's me to the far left again.
but wait the night is far from over.... I'll finish the post later. But here's a little hint I met Steve Young, Dr. Ward, and got handcuffed.

Finally the election is over. I can only imagine how the candidates feel. I am so sick of Prop 8 stuff! Sorry, I realize that there are lots of people who have lived, ate, and slept Prop 8 for the last several months and I say KUDOS. Thanks to your tireless work the Prop looks like it will win. I will be thrilled to have my email back, I will be thrilled to have lessons in RS again, and most of all I will be thrilled that (at least for a little while) Willow will stop asking questions about same sex- sex. Yeah, try and describe that one. NO picture today the possibilities could get me into trouble.

Halloween

Here's the Trick-or-treating gang. They were the best dressed bunch if I do say so myself. However, WORD TO THE WISE- it is NOT cheaper or easier or faster to make the costumes yourself.

Notice the Snow Queens icy gaze.

Cleopatra (NOw looking back it seems as if all that gold was real)

Hamburger (I bought this costume and did nothing to it $15.00)

lily apparently likes to eat grass, it makes her happy

Lily in a Halloween outfit not her costume (a packet of ketchup)

Girls Have EGGs like Chickens

Note: This may contain some adult chicken language and some chicken parts not suitable for young viewers. A special thanks to Prop 8 for the Chicken talk with my kids. FHE was a blast.

Today in the car with all 4 kids this was the conversation:

• Willow: Why do people steal the Prop 8 signs?



• Mom: They are frustrated that some people want to vote YES. When we vote YES what we are really voting for is that only boys and girls can get married... So two girls can't get married, and two boys can't get married. It hurts their feelings that we don't want that.



• Willow: Why can't they get married?



• MOm: The Prophet said only a boy and a girl should get married. Heavenly Father wants families with a Daddy, Mommy, and little kids.



• Willow: Heavenly Father won't give a baby to two girls that get married?



• Mom: Nope, it takes a boy and a girl to have a baby (Note Mom is becoming more and more uncomfortable with the direction of the converstation)



• Willow: That's why babies look like both their mommy and their daddy, like Lily. How does Heavenly Father decide what parts on the mommy and what parts on the daddy to make on the baby? How does the baby actually get in there?



• Poppy: (Yelled from the back seat) GIRLS HAVE EGGS LIKE CHICKENS

Talk about a sucker punch. I thought I was going to get whiplash my head swung around so fast. Since when did the birds and the bees include chickens? Since when did my 4 year old learn more than the 7 year old? Maybe I ought to rethink how I am going to talk about "IT" with my girls. I wonder how many other parents are explaining the virtues of PROP 8 with their children? After further questioning Poppy did not know that roosters have sperm. Yikes. I explained in Family Home Evening that girls do have eggs but they are very little and don't come out like chickens do. Poppy and Willow seemed relieved. I didn't see the need to point out that a baby comes out instead. We sang Chicken Families Can Be Together Forever to close our eventful FHE. Once again I deliver a most spiritual lesson.

Aarows? What Aarows?

NOte the Prop 8 banner that Samuel is carrying. I think it just about sums up the climate in California right about now. It's time to rent our shirts and make our stands.
Yes, I know that this is Samuel the Lamanite and he did not rent his shirt, but Capitan MOroni did and he surely would vote YES for Prop 8. I tried to get Dave to "rent" his shirt for me this evening but he was too tired.

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

So I was looking through some blogs that I have bookmarked and this is one talented lady. She does dress give-aways and I look at them and admire her talent. This is NOT what my costumes look like. This is what I imagine my costumes to look like and then they come out looking.....well not like that.
When Dave and I get invited to a Halloween Party we dress up. We like it. Dressing up that is. We have some great cosutme ideas I think the funniest was when we were childless and I had long hair, we went as Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski. I wore a blue dress with a nasty "DNA stain" on it and a black beret. He wore a suit and a mask. It was the hit of the night. But for those of you who don't want to be that risque I have others. Anyway I want to be Marie Antionette and King HenryVIII and this is the dress I pictured in my head for me. Wish me luck winning it! Oh yeah, it's a child's dress but I can make Poppy wear it. She can be the Snow Queen any year!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

I'm starting to get nasty emails again. That must mean it's time to update the blog. I've been getting a ton of Facebook stuff. I'm just not feeling the love. I'm also not feeling very funny lately. I found my BYU box. Dang I was funny. I was also footloose and fancy free. I'll post this weekend. I've got a draft going. Don't despair.

How are we all on costumes? I am making all but one of the kids costumes this year. Let me tell you, it is NOT cheaper to make them yourselves! Willow is going to be Cleaopatra, Poppy is going to be the Snow Queen, Phoeinx a hotdog or hamburger (he hasn't decided), and Lily is going to be a packet of ketchup. I love Halloween. It's my favorite holiday. If I were going to have a party... it would be a killer Annual Halloween Party. But since I don't have parties I guess you'll never know how cool it coulda been. You say Meliss why don't you have parties? Well I'll tell you why:

Picture it, Hemet about 4 years ago,(I miss the Golden Girls) my sister-in-law says lets have a party. I said, "sure" we can do it at my house. It was one of those parties where you go to buy stuff. You know the kind, we mormon women love to have them, where you go to buy something from someone else because they bought what you were selling. Pampered Chef, Southern Living, Cookie Lee, Layers, you name it we sell it. I made out the invitations, I sent out what seemed like a thousand, and I made the calls the day of. I cleaned my house. I STAYED home from teaching school that day to clean my house and set up. I made a spread of goodies to eat both savory and sweet. My sister in law invited her friends from work and we waited. The first hour passes and I thought oh everyone is late, the second hour passed and I thought did I put the wrong date on the invite? Then the third hour passed and I realized I was a looser. Soooo sad. I know you are laughing now and I know that most of you would say you are laughing with me and not at me, but it really wasn't funny. Therefore I avoid having parties. I haven't had anything here in Corona most of the ward hasn't even been in the house. I can count on my hand the number of people who have. Yep I'm a looser it's official.