Happy Halloween

I love Halloween. I’d say it’s my favorite holiday except, I love the Christmas season too. The best part about Christmas is that it is more than just a day. So back to Halloween, I think I love Halloween because people dress up in costumes and just have fun being something they aren’t or wearing something they only feel they can ware as a costume. It is so much fun making up costumes and putting them together. Every year I make myself a new costume outfit. This year I didn’t make a new costume for myself. That’s because I was making other costumes. This year I made the Halloween costumes for my mother-in-law and her friend. Every year they throw a Halloween party and do fun costumes as the host. This year they wanted to do and old west theme. They wanted to go as Saloon girls and their husbands wanted to go as cowboys. So a few weeks ago we took a trip up to Tucson to buy fabric and patterns. I enjoy putting things together and imagining what they will look like. One thing I learned working in a fabric store is that very few people have the ability to look beyond the picture on the pattern. If they can’t find the fabric that is on the picture they are completely at a loss of what to use. Helping people see what else they can do is something I enjoy. Brenda (my mother-in-law) and Karen (her friend) were really open minded when it came to ideas. Brenda chose for her costume to be purple and black and Karen chose orange and black. The both turned out darling. I wish I had pictures of them in their final costumes to post. For the Men’s costumes I made vests out of faux-leather suede. They then wore black jeans, black shirt, and cowboy hats.
For Cory I made a black pin-strip zuit suit. He was going as a 1920’s gangster and I was to go as a flapper. I made a flapper dress-red with black fringe) when I was just starting college and figured I would ware it again. While in Tucson, Brenda bought me a black finger-waved wig. It looked really wiggy on me, but oh well at least I didn’t have to finger-wave my own hair. Well by the end of the night my dress was falling apart. The seams were really coming undone. By that point it was time to go home before I flashed someone. We had fun and was very happy with how all the costumes I made turned out.

Primary Program & Haunted Houses

This week was the primary program. I am so glad that is over. The children did very good. Normally, I loath watching primary programs because it is chaos on the stand. Its painful to watch. But I think being a part of the primary program I was able to appreciate it more because I knew that it was nowhere near the possible chaos that could be existing.

I have been sick all week, I have a sore throat, lost my voice, I had a fever, not fun. So I was mostly feeling better by Saturday but not perfect. But I still didn’t have a voice. What made the whole thing really funny was that the children followed me- so when my voice went out and I was mostly lip singing, the children would bring their volume down to nothing too, but when I could get sound out, their sound would go back to normal. If it wasn’t so frustrating, it would have been entertaining. At least the children follow me. Thank goodness the children sang just fine on Sunday.

So for my visual on Sunday I wanted something just fun for the children- sort of like a celebration. I made a scary house (like a haunted house but I didn’t want to call it a haunted house). Now there was a concern about it not being appropriate for church. So I did check with the Primary President prior to making the house, to verify that it was okay. I would recommend doing that. I made the house so that the windows open and the door too. I wanted to make the house less scary after we had sang all the songs. I made these little cutesy ghosts and wrote the songs on the ghosts. Then I put a ghost in each window. All the songs we sang where picked by the children or were just fun songs. Both Jr and Sr seemed to really enjoy the house and the ghosts.

We Love Visitors

Last weekend Lisa and Rial Solomon came to visit us. We love it when we have visitors. The last visitors that we had had were a while ago when my parents came down.
So Saturday while Lisa and Rial were here, there was our Stakes Fall Fun Festival. Cory made chili for the chili cook-off. There were lots of fun activities going on. One was the talent show, Lisa and Rial got roped into do a Philippino stick dance. Cory wanted to get involved too. Cory's chili won 2nd place in his chili's category (beef with no beans). It was fun, except that we all got a little bit of sun.
After the Fall Fun Festival, we took a drive up Carr Canyon. You can see our house from here. It is so nice up there. All the pine trees and plants, its hard to believe you are still in the desert. Going up the canyon you can also see how close to Mexico we live. Rial said he had never before been this far south in Arizona, well you can't get much further south, you won't be in Arizona much further.
We love visitors. So the next time you want to take a trip to almost but not quite Mexico think of us.

6 inches doesn't seem to be much

So yesterday, I went and got 6 inches chopped off my hair. I was ready for a change, but I didn't know what I wanted. I looks a lot like other hair cuts I have had in the past. I guess I like it. I don't not like it. The lady used a razor on the ends and I like that. It feels different when I touch in, but looking at it doesn't seem like much is gone. Its just something new. It had been since when my sister's wedding March 2005 since I really cut it off.

Most Resently Tried and True

Singing Scientist

A few weeks ago I used the Singing Scientist suggestion that I found on the internet. The site I found the idea on, suggested having some jars with some with baking soda and food coloring in them. Then having a cup for each jar- some cups just have water, and some cups have vinegar. I instead decided to make it the jars that varied and filled an old 2 liter bottle with a 1:4 vinegar water mix. I had 6 jars, each jar was a little different with what was in it. Some jars had baking soda, some baking powder, some had flour. The food coloring was hiding under the powder. One jar was really special, it had blue food coloring with baking powder, then red food coloring with baking soda for a top layer. It was really cool. Baking soda reacts quickly with vinegar and then the reaction in over. While baking powder still reacts but it is a slower reaction and it goes much longer. Just for the record, flour does not create a reaction with vinegar, it only dissolves. So this special jar started by turning red and then when it got to the blue and the baking powder it stratified and stayed in layers. The kids thought it was so cool. I have been asked by parents what it was that we did because their children haven’t stopped talking about it. For how I did it with the children we would sing the son I choose for them to work on, since we are preparing for the primary program I choose songs they were weaker on. We sang the whole sang, then re-sang a part of the sang they struggled most (sometimes 3 or 4 times), until it was good, then re-sang the whole song, and if they did well I had a child who had been singing really well to pick one of the jars to see the reaction. I wore my lab coat from college, and my safety chemistry goggles. I also wore a pair of gloves. Again the kids loved it. If you do this don’t forget a spoon to stir it up with because the food coloring sticks to the powders.

Mr Pumpkinhead

Last week I made a giant pumpkin. I had wanted to use an actual pumpkin but instead I was unable to find one that I felt like spending the money on. So as with almost everything I made it out of construction paper. I made it three tall pieces wide and two pieces tall. I then used a green for the stem and had it curly-q. For the activity I had varies facial feature cut out of the black paper. I had eyes, noses, and some mouths. From here you can do it two ways 1-(since we are still preparing for the primary program) I picked the song, when they sang well I had multiple children come and pick a facial feature, if they only sang the song so so, only one child came up to put up one facial feature. When the face was all together we sang the next song we needed to work on and we started over on the mix and match face. 2- have each facial feature matched to a song. I didn’t do it this way because I only had three songs I wanted to work on, and I had a lot more facial features than I did songs to practice. The children had fun, they really enjoyed giving the pumpkin two different eyes and putting them in a non-eye place.

Perfect 10

To prepare for the primary program I used the personal chalkboards that were found in the closest. But you can have your judges use any notepad, whiteboards, magic board. I invited three judges for each primary to come listen and judge the children’s performance. I wrote on the front board the things for the children to know what they were being judged on: 1-Presentation: standing together, attentiveness to me, smiling while singing, looking like they are singing. 2- Performance: understanding the words, hearing the words, knowing all the words and verses, singing the notes. I explained this to the judges. For Junior primary I had the counselor in the bishopric and the Elders assigned to the ward. For Senior primary the judges were the former primary president, one of the current primary presidency, and a brother who use to be their teacher. We kept tract of their best scores. For Jr., the judges were instructed to give a lower score the first time and if they did better a higher score the second. Sr I was harder on and the judges were really honest with the children each time telling them how they could improve. I learned that the younger the child is the more they cared about doing it perfect for the judges. But the boys and girls almost going into ym and yw didn’t care and were ruining the score for all the children who were trying. What really worked with doing this, is that they got good feedback- that wasn’t from me, sometimes I think that they are doing great and I don’t know how honest I’m being with myself.

Here is the Watermelon that I made a couple months ago. Its two red papers wide. Each seed has a number on the back and a magnate, there are also magnates on the back of the Watermelon.

Mutal Respect- Obviously Some People Find it a Joke

This vandalized poster was sitting on my parent's front yard. My parent's house is in the back of a neighborhood, in the back of a circle. Someone went out of their way to vandalize their property that was on their property. It sickens me.
The same people who did they are claiming they want equal rights, when obviously they don't. If they honestly believed in true equal rights they would respect people's rights to express their beliefs. They not only committed a crime by vandalizing and disregarding personal property, they are violating the rights of my parents (who are law abiding citizans) to have the right to express themselves, their right of free speach, their right to own person property and so much more.
I want to be able to respect peoples rights to choose how to live their own lives. If you read my past blogs you will see that I support many rights that indivdules arguee that they don't have. I just can not support the right for them to marry someone of the same sex. They still have the right to marry, they could still marry- but someone of the oposite sex. I have done many things to fight for those other rights, but whey they continue to disregard the rights of others- I no longer want to help fight for their rights.
When I lived in Utah, people who did not support rights for gay couples, lived quite lives of unsupport. They have that right, but those who lived that life style would constantly be in my face and other's faces flaunting their right to live how they want. I hated it. They were a small but in your face minority. In Arizona that minority is much larger, but most live quite lives. I can respect that. It is those people who live a quite lives makes me want to leave them alone and let them do so.
But by insulting and insurting their lives into mine- by infringing on my rights and the rights of those around me. I will fight! To those individules I ask you to STOP infringing on our basic rights, you can't say you are truely for equal right if you are not allowing the basic rights of life to those who do not think the same way you do.

The Women

If you read my review section on the left side of my blog you will see I very much enjoyed this movie. It is a chic flick movie and unless a guy really enjoys a well written drama they will have no interest. I heard a lot of negative reviews of this films- most saying how it degrades women and all that we are trying to be. I am sure those same reviewers (mostly women) would say the same thing about the 1939 version. Those women who think that are the type of women who think that no success in the home could ever compensate for failure in the workplace. The message that this play and both movie versions teaches is that a women have a place in the home. Not a dominated one, but a role that no other figure can fill, and that as women stretch ourselves too thin trying to do everything our home life will suffer, and new problems will develop. The other part of the message is that love is the most important thing that can help our relationships. We can do those other things but women need to keep balances in their life. There is so much that as women we can accomplish, we just cannot allow the things that are not as important to cause us to forget what really matters in life. I love the message and the modern take on this film.

AZ Prop 102, Saving Marriage, and what else I think should change

Those of you who have lived in the Arizona a few years now, will remember the complicated wording and confusion that surrounded the last proposition that was brought to voters about the official recognition of marriage in the state of Arizona.

This time the wording has been simplified so that anyone will understand its uncomplicated meaning.

Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.

Many other states have passes similar amendments to their state constitutions. Those who wish to call a union between a gay couple marriage argue that, Arizona, and those other states, already outlaw same-sex marriages, so why do we need an amendment? Laws can be outlawed and overturned much easier than constitutional amendments. An amendment to the constitution cannot be ruled as unconstitutional. Please remember that this law is not going to take away any benefits or take away status of individuals to receive benefits, it is only to change the state constitution so save the word "Marriage" for one man and one woman. Anyone who says otherwise is just trying to confuse the issue all over again. We believe marriage to be sacred and ordained of God. To call anything else a "marriage" is a mockery of all that is sacred, and what we hold true. There may come a time where we are forced to recognize 'unions' but part of making it in our state constitution or in our Federal constitution (if we are ever so blessed) would be to save that sacred word for only between a man and woman. As a side note most Senators stated their reason for not supporting the Marriage Amendment to our Federal Constitution was that it is a state right- SO LET US MAKE IT A STATE RIGHT. Without saving this word, they might as well stop recognizing any marriages at all. We could go to a society that only churches recognize marriages and everything else looks at it as nothing. I would rather go to this society than see the sacred word of “Marriage” be desiccated by being applied to a same-sex couple. But I can give reasons why that will not happen for a long time 1- Money, states make money to sell marriage licenses, they would lose money. 2-If a marriage is not going to make money then companies are going to start losing money because less people would be getting married, there is a lot of money in the business of weddings. 3-Most of our society recognized that the family unit of a marriage of a man and woman with their children that are born under that marriage is the foundation of our country. As that basic unit gets diminished and disregarded, our society has more and more problems that call be linked back to its failing families and marriages. To save a Marriage is to save a family and to save a family is to solve social problems.
Please help us save our society one marriage at a time by voting yes on Prop 102.



I am now going to take this argument to a new level I wish to discuss how this proposition is not about benefits to elderly or to life partners or is it changing anyone’s status ability to receive benefits or insurance. Now this is one topic where some, especially in my own social circles would consider my views as liberal thinking.

What is the advantage given to a couple, by being recognized as marriage by the government?

Taxes- Being able to file jointly
Insurance- being able to have spousal benefits and dependant benefits, Life and Health
Social Security Benefits/ Survivor/Pension-
Homeownership
Adoption and Child Custody
1- Taxes: I believe our tax system needs to be changed, I think that it would be a benefit to the IRS to allow any two adults who want to combine their finances and financial be recognized as one unit to file jointly. They would have to go through a legal pathway to get this recognition. And the same would apply to undo this process. This could apply to life partners, marriages, business partners, siblings, mother and child. The catch would be only TWO adults could become joint in finances.
2- Insurance: who doesn’t think it needs to be changed
Health- I think that Insurance companies who recognize a spouse should change their way of how they recognize who they cover. It should be changed to that each policy will recognize the primary policy holder and one other adult plus any children (either adopted or biological of either adult on the policy).
Life- You should be able to name whoever you want in a policy as the beneficiary. Problem solved.
3- When it comes to ALL of those other retirement and other benefits, as with the Life insurance you should be able to name anyone to receive those benefits. There should be a legal process, just as with the joint finances, to name someone your beneficiary of retirement and upon death benefits. And as with benefits that are split between multiple past spouses, those benefits with be divided between all past legal beneficiaries. Yes all of this is more paperwork and legal stuff, but it would solve so many other problems without changing recognized marriage.
4- Homeownership: If banks are now forced to recognize legal joint finances and legal beneficiaries than they will recognize whoever you want to put on your home loan and have to be divided legally if the two parties decided to dissolve this legal binding.
5- I very rarely hear the argument that adoption is a right that same-sex couples are arguing for, when it comes to being recognized as a marriage. I can’t pretend that I support the idea of children being raise by same-sex couples. Just as with a single parent there will always be something missing in the child’s upbringing. When it comes to a child custody of a child who was born under a traditional marriage and then one of the parents chose to leave it, I think that if that a good person is not hurting the child physically or emotionally they should be have contact and be a presents in that child’s life. It takes a man and a women to raise a child, both have unique abilities necessary to the healthy development of a child. It is a tragedy when a child has to be raised without one or the other. We should not be legally sanctioning tragedy for the sake of convenience. It is my belief that most advocates of same-sex marriage are concerned with adoption rights. To those who are, I can only tell you that I respectfully and strenuously disagree that same-sex couples have the same capacity to raise a child as a traditional marriage.

My argument for the advocating these changes have not factors that I am trying to support ‘gay rights’. Instead they are formed from a series of problems that I have seen in the few short years of my life. If it then benefits same-sex couples then so be it, especially if they stop trying to infringe on Sacred Marriage. I think that two sisters who are not married, who live together, should be able to take advantage of these changes. Same with two widows who want to share those benefits.
I think that the government should be encouraging people to share living quarters, not for any reason of sexual benefit, but for the economic, social, and environmental benefits. It saves money to share household expenses, it is proven that people feel happier and connected social when they live in the household with someone (ie someone to see when you get home), and last of all there have been a number of studies that show that a household of one and a household of two create use the same number of utilities and therefore produce the same number of greenhouse gasses. With this way to slow down global warming I am surprised that the environmental enthusiasts aren’t pushing the “help the environment, get a roommate” slogan. The green house emissions increase by a small percentage, when individuals are added to a household.
Again my point is not to advocate ‘gay rights’ not is it to preach the effects of global warming. But it is to enlighten our nation to looking at things differently. We can save Marriage, and still respect that not everyone has the same needs. We can look at two people living together was living in sin, or recognize that everyone needs a roommate, and that I can’t force them to have the roommate that I want them to.

Please help pass Proposition 102 in November. Please vote Yes, please support families and help solve social problems.

Primary Chorister Ideas

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Flower and Petals

I made a flower out of construction paper. Each petal was about 2 inches wide and 4 inches tall. I also had a stem that held all the petals. It was just stuck on with a touch of glue stick glue. The glue tore off easy and clean. Then in between the two primaries, I re-glued the petals to the stem.

Watermelon seeds

I love to create out of construction paper. I tried to make it as large as possible. I created it out of two sides of red papers. Then used some green to line the bottom of the red. I made the seeds as large as I could without them looking ridiculous for the watermelon. They were about an inch wide. Each seed had a magnate and a number on the back. I put some magnates on the back of the watermelon too.

Rising Balloon

The string was looped all the way around the board, pull the string down on the back, the balloons rise on the front. Really simple to make. I created a background on my board with construction paper, but you really don’t have to. Also you don’t have to make cut out balloons, anything that goes up: balloons, birds, clouds, airplane.