what a thriller

No, I do not think I can dance. But when the teacher of my jazzercize class suggested we do this for our Church's Halloween carnival, how could I say no! Really, the chance to learn Thriller! I'm not sure what got into me, (Halloween possesion?) and I think I was a step behind the whole way but I am sure that I had a blast! Kinked neck and all! It was a pitifully small group of us that performed it (darn toe, Kristy!) but we danced with the funk of forty thousand years and loved it, every minute. (I may not be able to dance, but I can sew-do you like the dress I made for the dance?)

Oh, the Secret Garden!

I had a great time as Costume Director ... and now I'm glad to be finished. 33 children were in this production, and most of them had several changes.
I sewed, planned, shopped, and coordinated to get all the costumes finished by Opening Night, October 20th.
I planned and shopped during the day when I could and then sewed after I put the kids to bed at night. I've seen a lot of late night M*A*S*H, The Office, and listened to a book on tape to help the time go. Here is a before and after of one of the dresses. I bought it at the thrift store and then modified it for the play.
Chris was very good about the mess in my work area, a.k.a our bedroom. As long as he could find the bed at night, he was OK. But there were a few times it was so covered in lace, fabric and cloths that even that was a challenge. Here are a few pictures from it all.













In the end, there were three racks of cloths like the one shown. I took a picture of some of the cast members during Cast Pictures to give you an idea of how they looked.
I had a blast with this project and feel really blessed to be able to do it.
As a side story, My favorite character in the play is Martha, seen in the cast picture wearing a cream blouse and red skirt. She is optimistic and helps in healing the whole story. She is a maid and wears very simple cloths but the whole time that I worked, hand sewing, beading, adding lace, velvet etc., I wished I could have made her something beautiful that would reflect her spirit. But that would be out of place for her part so I sewed costume jewels into the hem of one of her smocks, because she was a treasure. I told the girl who played her after the production was over and she was so delighted. She said she was bummed her part didn't have any fun cloths like some of the other characters, but she sang fabulously and played her part well none the less.
And so it is, I think with our part in life and where we are to affect and help the lives of each other around us.

My Secret fun!

I have always liked to sew; Halloween especially! I'm not saying I'm polished at it, but what fun to create things from scratch. Walking into a fabric store is like looking at paints waiting for a canvas! And now I get a chance to really play (and get payed)!
I am the new Costume Director for the upcoming play "The Secret Garden"! A friend is co-owner of Actors' Youth Theatre. She asked if I wanted the job and I jumped!
So I'm telling you this because until October 20-23, I am taking a hiatus from this blog. I'll be back soon with pictures and thoughts and I'll check in to your blogs when I can. I'll tell you how it went in October.

And the winner is...

The Chocolate Cheese Cake by Chris! We started the awards ceremony with the Star Wars fan fair song playing in the background and gave honorable mention to all the great treats! Then the winner was announced and everyone was surprisingly civil. Frankly, Grant is so relieved that it wasn't Jack! Yes that hunk of a man can cook and boy how! Lucky us, we'll be having that again. The recipe will be coming as promised, sometime between SWAT shooting practice and DUI work. But here are some out takes from our summer fun in the mean time. (the broken plate is courtesy of Jango who has gotten big enough to bring down lots of food now days)

Just to wet your appetite

We wanted to clarify the contest for our loyal fans. No this wasn't eaten all at once (keep up runners)! This was an ongoing contest that we started back in May. With Dad's crazy cop schedule we usually have family home evenings on Tuesdays or whenever we had an undisturbed night (Are we ever really undisturbed?). This was the motivation to have Family Home Evening every week, and except for the week we were camping, (we didn't count the s'mores) we had FHE all summer long. So, yes we ate all that sugar, along with helpful Uncle Sam, a very undeserving dog and other willing family, but not at the same time. Each person planned their treat ahead of time so the ingredients were included in the weekly grocery trip and then they made the creation them selves (or as much as they could). The boasting, scheming, planning, dreaming, and eating went on all summer long and it was a great summer! After careful counting of comments and e-mails, counts and recounts, chads and maybe some bribbery, we finally have the winner. But you'll have to wait till tonight when we present the beautiful trophy seen above at Family Home Evening! (8ish AZ Time)

Summer Desert Dessert Contest!

Please Vote!

This summer, as motivation for Family Home Evenings, we started a simple dessert contest.
(We don't condone the evils of sugar, but you can't judge a 'Best Spiritual Lesson' contest.)
We've tried to keep each dessert anonymous but its hard to leave out the creator on some of these. Please be as unbiased as possible when voting. We understand the difficulties in voting on a dessert without tasting them, so as an added incentive, the winner of this year's contest will post their recipe on this blog. Happy Voting! Here are the summer's entries in no particular order. Please post your ballot in comments or at chrisandjenny@hotmail.com.

Volcano Cake. Chocolate Bunt cake with chocolate peanut butter drizzle. Topped with oreo's , and filled with a milk and Dry Ice explosion.

Hawaiian Shaved Ice. Made with fresh mango's and Pineapple and a tropical punch kick.

Mint Brownies. Rich Chocolate mint brownie with a layer of mint in the middle. (Actual photo was deleted...)

Chocolate Cheese Cake. Layers of Chocolate cake sandwiching a layer of Cheesecake, and fudge icing in between to hold it all together.

Rainbow Cake. White cake with sprinkles, topped with rainbow sorbet. (If you like rainbows and butterflies...) As American as Apple Pie. Apple Pie and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. (What's better than apple pie?- jars of apple pie filling that you can use any time you want!)Sugar cookies. These cookies are shaped like tools because this builder believe desserts build a strong family. (sound like a primary theme?) Flag Cake. Even more American than Apple Pie and topped with this summer's freshest fruit.

Home Made Ice Cream. Homemade vanilla with M & Ms, Snickers, Chocolate and caramel laced in.
Cereal. A favorite night time treat for a busy day, and perfect to enjoy in front of Discovery's Shark Week.
Good luck and happy voting!

... if you hate them that much, why not drive a plane into their house?

I recently bought a 'new' stove off craigslist, and+ met a very cantankerous man. (Love craigslist by the way!) As we were preparing to load my beautiful stove into my brothers truck, our small talk lead into how he hated 'wetbacks'! I was so offended that he even used that term. Hello! I thought we'd all learned how stupid racism is. I told him about my great hispanic neighbors, trying to put emphasis on hispanic in case his little brain had never heard the proper word. He didn't get it! What an idiot! I wanted to drop the oven then, but we'd already made the deal and had traded cash. I wish I could have been more brave, and refused to deal with such a bigot!
It remined me of a man I met at a bus stop in Brooklyn after 9/11 who went off on Islaims. He was so sure that we shouldn't let imigrants into our wonderful country, and then I mentioned how all of my ancesters came from another country. He proudly told of his ancesters who came from Poland. (Oh, no wonder... Kidding! No more Polish jokes) Wheres the logic if we're all imigrants and yet we should hate the next generation coming in. Argh!
Hate is so stupid! I HATE people who HATE people! wait... i mean...um... Just don't hate people until you get to know them, then it's ok! :)