Halloween Partaaaaay!

Last night, Corbin and I went on a hot date to explore Downtown Ithaca.  We visited an art gallery, and was blown away by the prices of all the pieces.  We also browsed around a used book store (I mostly explored the children's section and loved it!).

Being so gentle to a fire belly toad

Afterwards, we retrieved Theo from our friends the Swigerts. Sidenote: Theo is the luckiest boy.  We had been reading one of his stories earlier in the day, where pizza is pictured.  He had then started crying because he wanted pizza so badly, but we didn't have any.  Guess what the Swigerts had for dinner with Theo.  Yes, pizza!

Anyways, the Swigerts then joined us at out Sciencenter for their spooky Halloween night!

We got there right in time for the spooky science show.  Some chemistry students from Ithaca College showed us smokey dry ice, a chemical combination that changed colors, over and over!  They also did some fun tricks with liquid nitrogen, made green slime, and made "elephant toothpaste!"  I was definitely entertained, and Theo was enamored!

Then we went upstairs to see the lizards and snakes.  I'm not sure Theo was too into it, but I had a wonderful time!

It was so fun to explore with the Swigerts!!

 On Thursday, we went to Wegmans for a trick or treating extravaganza.

I got a chance to test out our face paint set. This picture doesn't show it too well, but it's as if I have the mouth of a dinosaur. Pretty sweet, right?

 
We got a lot of awesome candy.  I say we, because admittedly, Corbin and I ate most of it after Theo had gone to bed. He'll never know the difference that we ate his "dadannn."

We were supposed to meet our lovely neighbors there, but because of communication difficulties, only saw them for a moment.  It was great seeing the kids' costumes though.  

We still have several Halloween activities to attend in the next week, and it made me glad that we chose a low maintenance costume.

I sure love sharing in the seasonal fun with my sweet boy!

Three Random Stories

Theo and I had some friends over to paint pumpkins. Obviously, Theo's was a masterpiece.  When Corbin saw if after he came home, he first thought it had gone bad.

I have three random stories to share:

1) The other night, Corbin was leading the pillow talk.  He told me about his Star Wars books, then gave me a graphic description of tape worm, then somehow got back to Star Wars.  I don't know how he did it, how I let it happen, but I know I'll be doing more discussion guiding in the future.

2) Last night, Theo woke up crying- the kind of cry where I knew I should probably get out of bed and check on him.  So I picked him up and we went to lay on the couch.  I thought he had fallen back asleep, but when the one o'clock bus went by, I heard his sweet little voice next to my ear whisper, "bus." He went back to sleep really easily, but I'm glad we got to share that moment.

3) I recently remembered something that happened to me in kindergarten.  I remembered arguing with my classmate named Brittany about how Jesus was perfect.  I still believe that Jesus Christ led a sinless life, but I now know better than to yell in someone's face about it.  I guess that's what 20 extra years of experience has taught me.

What do Pumpkins, Stake, and Taffetas have in common?

Last Saturday was a busy day, full of fun and excitement.

Cornell hosted a pumpkin carving party for kids of grad students, so we got all up in that action. We absolutely had to put Theo in his frenchman costume, and doesn't he look awesome?!

There were free pumpkins, treats, and other cute kids to enjoy.

We carved a picture of one of Theo's current favorite things: sheep. 

He was a very patient boy during the whole process. Also, he amazed me by keeping his barrett on pretty much the whole time.

Corbin timed this picture just right to make Theo look like a perv. 

 By the way, I drew on Theo's face with my liquid eye liner.  I never realized how sparkly it is until I wiped his face off and his sweet skin was shimmering.

After we finished carving, we dropped the pumpkins off at the car, and took a turn around Bebee lake.

New York certainly knows how to do fall.

Afterwards, we went home and rested up before Stake Conference.  In the afternoon, we went to church, ditched Theo in the nursery (where he had a fabulous time) and enjoyed the spiritual messages from our Stake president, temple president, and other members in the area.  The theme of the meeting was finding peace through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and I came away feeling so uplifted and refreshed.

After the meeting, there was a pot luck with so much amazing food!  We got to see our friends, and even got to reunite with our friend Martille!

After we'd had our fill, Corbin and Theo whisked me away to my Taffetas performance.  That's right, the talent show we'd been rehearsing for has happened, and it went fabulously!  The entire show was wonderful, with a variety of fun and beautiful musical acts.

Hopefully there will be a video of our performance on facebook soon (I know I want to see it). I will miss spending so much time with the ladies in the show, until of course the actual show rehearsals start picking up in February and March.  It was a wonderful opportunity for me to get out of the house, take a break from Mommy land, and do something that I love. 

Cotton Swabs, Chickens, and Pie

Yesterday, I got my cheek swabbing kit from the Be the Match registry. By sending in my cheek cells, my name and type (or whatever... I'm no doctor) will be put on the national list for being a bone marrow donor.  Thanks to Whitney for pointing me to this, because it sounds like such a cool opportunity to save someone's life!

As I was saying, I swabbed my cheeks, and Theo thought that was pretty cool.  So I got him some Q-tips of his own and he put it in his envelope.  What a cute helper!

Last weekend we visited Corbin's band mates' home.  They live on a miniature farm, which is awesome.  Theo screamed and screamed with excitement when he saw the sheep.  That put them a bit on edge, but the boy sheep was only too happy to come over when we had delicious alfalfa pellets to feed him.  Theo thought they were pretty tasty too.

They also caught one of their chickens to show Theo.  He was very gentle to the creatures, which was a proud mommy moment for me.  He ended up herding the chickens around though, in an attempt to catch one himself.

There were all sorts of fun instruments to test out.  When he sat down to the drums, he laid himself a beat and sang us a beautiful song (pictured above). Nice deep guttural aaahhhs, so cute!

We went home with fun memories, plus a bag of delights from their garden.  They were so accommodating and sweet! Theo and I will have to accompany Corbin to band practice, just to visit the farm again.

On Sunday night, we held church choir at our house, and it turned into a regular party!  Our pianist brought adorable little pies to share... grape pies!  Apparently that is a New York thing, so she had to try it for herself and share. 

When Theo caught wind that there were treats nearby, he stood in the kitchen crying, "paaa, paaaaa!" until he got his serving.  He obviously loved it, and was purple for at least 24 hours.

After choir was over, most everyone stayed to hang out.  Kristy recited out of our Halloween jokes book.  Example: What's the difference between a ghost and peanut butter?  Ghosts don't get stuck to the roof of your mouth!  A real knee slapper.

Also, we had been discussing West Wing (the show) with our new best friends the Passeys, so they brought along the first season on DVD, and we watched a couple episodes.  I'd seen many episodes before, but not these.  I'm glad they took the DVDs back to their house, because I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, and I would have watched it all in like two days.  Thanks for looking out for my productivity, Passeys!

Taffetas update: we worked out choreography for our medley performance that will be on Saturday.  Now we just need to polish it up, and bam! We'll be up on stage!  It's turning out well, and I'm loving it!!!

Painting, Babysitting, and Autumn

 What do you do when you need to get down a steep hill? Get down on your belly and skooch!

 Theo had his first finger painting extravaganza! Honestly, I think I liked it better than he did, but the pictures were worth it.

 We needed a few extra Halloween decorations, so I enlisted Theo to help.
 

 As you can see, quite a masterful job.

Then I wanted some sweet baby hands, but that was just for myself.

  Theo and I got to go babysit the cute Hardie girls.  Eventually, the phone came out to take selfies. I just can't resist sharing!

 As a post-dinner time activity, Theo and I went to the park.  We certainly love the upstate New York fall.

 By the way, I had my first "voice lesson" yesterday.  The director of the Taffetas is also a voice instructor, so she agreed to have a private get together with me and work on proper breathing.  I've learned the techniques many years ago during drama camps and musical rehearsals, but this lesson was great.  Now I just need to practice and make it second nature before we get hard core into choreography.

Apple Festival

In between the sessions of Conference, we were very busy doing fun things! 

 We went to the mall to grab something from Best Buy.  On the way out, we visited the pet store, and saw the most active, and silly chinchilla.  The shop girl gave us some seeds to feed him.  Theo wasn't too into it, but I had a fantastic time!

This is just a bonus picture.  Theo and I were dancing, then he walked over, grabbed my face, and kissed me. What a sweet heart.

On Saturday morning, we went to the Ithaca Apple Festival. 

We got some delicious treats, and saw lots of fun booths. We did some fancy dancing to banjo music.

This is for Carlie.  There were fun masks, and I wish I could have taken pictures of all of them!

This goat scratched his back with his horn.  Theo also informed me that he says Maaaaaa!

In waiting for the bus, we had lots of fun playing in this little cage. 

He was so exhausted when we got home, but wouldn't part with his balloon.  He slept through the first whole session, which alone made the trip worth it.

Other things we did over the weekend: I ran a glow in the dark 5k, we went to a branch brunch, we went to a birthday party, and we had people over for almost every session. Full, and fulfilling, weekend!

A little response to- What's up with the Bible!!??

In preparing to hear the inspired words of the prophet and other leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I try to think of questions that I want answered, then listen for the response.  

For this weekend's General Conference, I knew exactly what I wanted help with.  As some of my readers may remember from this post, I’ve been reading the Old Testament all the way through.  I’ve had issues incorporating the things that go on into my understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lately I’ve been Joshua, and that is a crazy book.  All that he does is send the Israelites to slaughter people and completely destroy their cities, in order to claim those areas as their own inheritances.  What??? My first reaction is: this does not sound like the same God I know. Why would a loving Heavenly Father have his chosen people kill probably thousands of men, women, and children for their own gain?  I know this question shows that my understanding of what’s going on is narrow, but I still had it.

My goal for listening to General Conference was to get some understanding about the Bible that would bring me peace about its contents, and try to incorporate it into my current testimony. As I recall, there weren’t any talks like that.  In fact, one of the speakers mentioned that she admired the warrior-prophet Joshua, and quoted Joshua 24:15.  Great scripture, but didn’t exactly do the trick for me.

Today, after having felt the Spirit so strongly all weekend, I jumped back into the Bible.  I’m trying to do what President Uchtdorf said, “… doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.” I really want to make the Bible work for me, so I’m going to keep reading it.  As I was reading in Joshua 19, I read verse 47. I don’t know why this verse made my mind click, but I’m glad it did.

*Warning, I may not have a perfect understanding of the culture, or historical accurateness.* The Israelites were a very exclusive people, so they didn’t care what their neighbors thought about them.  Now, the LDS church does care what people think who aren’t in our faith. We care, because we are a very much inclusive church.  We want people to like us and know that we’re happy, so that they’ll be interested in the Church, and maybe some day share in it.

The Lord told the Israelites to go around destroying people. I don’t know why exactly, but I’m sure he had very good reason.  People were different back then.  The Lord does things differently now in some respects, because we as human kind are different. This epiphany made me feel a lot better about the Bible.  Even though I knew this in my brain, I now know it in my heart. 

I don’t think the timing of this ah-ha moment is a coincidence.  I think it came after General Conference because the Lord knew I was trying my best and listening to the prophets.

I questioned, I prayed and studied, then I listened- not only to the prophets, but to the Holy Spirit. I’m grateful for these moments that show me God really is listening to me and wants me to have as much understanding as I can get.