He's baaack!

Wow, two years went by fast. Click here.

(BTW - the sign means "Welcome, my little cabbage." Apparently, it was a joke between Brooke and Brady in 9th grade!)

Dutch Christmas

In our house, my kids have it pretty dang good - they get not one but TWO Christmases (kind of), thanks to their grandpa (Opa, as he is affectionately known) being born in Rotterdam, Holland. Thus we celebrate "Sinterklaas Day" every December 6th.

Sinterklaas lives in Spain during the year. I have no clue as to why he lives in Spain and not Holland-seems like a bit of a traitor to me.

Anyway.

In December, he arrives in Holland by ship along with his helper Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) who is Sinterklaas' helper (Black Pete has a dark and creepy history but we won't get into that here - my kids could be reading this!). Sinterklaas and Zwarte Pete travel on a white horse to all the children's houses on the eve of December 5th where the children have set out their klompen (wooden shoes), either outside or by the fireplace, filled with hay and carrots for Sinterklaas' horse. If the children have been "good" that year then Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet fill the children's shoes with goodies. If they've been bad, they get sticks and coal.

Apparently my kids were okay this year as they ended up with lots of Dutch treats and NO STICKS! *woot* Thank you Mr. Sinterklaas and (creepy) Black Pete for filling my kids with more sugar!

The children always get a "chocolate letter" in their shoes. Adam checks out his "A".

"M" for Matthew :o)

Thanksgiving is next week and I'm just now posting Halloween pics. Lame, I know.

official bed-head poster child

The results are in. Announcing the winner of the highly competitive "bed-head contest." Congratulations Adam, this morning you officially took the prize!

zion's canyoneering

One of my favorite movies of all time is "Cast Away." I especially like when Tom Hanks' character finally is able to build a fire for himself on the beach of his lonely little island. I love his reaction to his amazing accomplishment when he jumps all around beating his chest and pointing to the fire and saying, "Yaaa, look what I have created! I have made fire. I. Have. Made. Fire!"

Love it.

So....I recently experienced a similar feeling of accomplishment. I, yes ME, Maryanne, went to Zion's National Park and I, yes ME, Maryanne, went rappelling! Down cliffs. Steep gangly cliffs.

It's true. It happened.

So here, look what I have done! I went rappelling.

I. Went. Rappelling!

My practice run. We stopped just outside of Zion's to have our lesson given by my expert-canyoneering-brothers-in-law, Jim and Bryson.

John dangling on his practice run.

The beginning of Keyhole slot canyon where we would spend the next two hours dropping, climbing, sliding, crawling, sloshing.

Our pre-descention salute.

First official rappel into the canyon. I must say that I was NOT prepared for that first step backwards. The human mind was just not meant to be "okay" with stepping backwards off the edge of a cliff!

At the bottom of most of the rappels was a pool of ice-cold water, thus the wet-suit attire. Some are so deep you have to swim through them.

Me and my beau in the narrows.

Looking upward. Ya gotta love the beauty of Zion's, the true definition of awesome.

Hurrah! We made it out! Alive and happy and wet and with my fair share of a few scrapes and bruises (and sore muscles in places I didn't even know I had muscles!).

gunpowder, treason, and plot....

....is what was on Guy Fawkes' mind when he tried to blow up Parliament in London back in 1605. Fortunately he was caught before King James 1 was annihilated. Parliament was saved and Mr. Fawkes was subsequently chopped into 4 pieces whilst his head hung in the town square. I bet no one tried that one again!

What has come out of this twisted conspiracy is an odd little yearly celebration in England called "Bonfire Night" or "Guy Fawkes Night." Since we had the privilege of living in the jolly ol' place for three years, we have continued with this fun, yet extremely odd, tradition which goes like this....

On or around the anniversary of the plot, November 5th, people gather around a big bonfire for a rather macabre celebration. With them they have brought homemade "Guys" which are stuffed dummies (or drawn versions on cardboard, or made out of anything you want, really) of Guy Fawkes. Jacket potatoes are served and a feast ensues.

A contest is often held for who made the best "Guy," and then, with the fire roaring, the guests one by one hurl their "Guy" onto the fire while cheering and laughing. Sometimes a chant will be heard amongst the crowd as the "Guys" are thrown to their death....

Guy, guy, guy
Poke him in the eye,
Put him on the bonfire,
And there let him die.

Weird, I know.

So this brings me to last night. Our very dear friends who lived in England with us have carried on this yearly tradition. So here we are, celebrating this rather bizarre, but somehow really fun, holiday....

Everyone lines up with their "Guys" for judging. There were probably about 10 entries.

Adam and his guy...."locked in jail, with chains on him, missiles hitting his head, a bomb in his hand, and a skull on his shirt and foot." (Should I be worried as to what this celebration is doing to my child?)

The competition is steep. Who knew guy Fawkes was a "Y" fan?!

Haylie drew a picture (free-hand!) of his real likeness which gave her the prize for "Best over-all Guy."

The prizes were, well, shall we say, a little Deseret Industries-ish? Haylie tries to act like she likes her beautiful new woman statue.

This one is painful for me. There was also a pie baking contest. Mine is the luscious-looking coconut cream pie you see here (left, third from bottom). I know, your mouth is watering. It should be, it was The. Best. Pie. EVER and, in my very humble opinion, should have won. However, I believe that, somehow, bribery was involved here.

Haylie, Raegan, and Adam by the bonfire, watching the poor Guys being flung to their demise.

Poor guy.

my life.....where are you?!

Lately, I have been facing cruel mocking from people whom I thought were my friends. All because my blog has lay idle for apparently "way too long!" I want to take this opportunity to publicly announce to you all that......my life lately does not belong to me! It has involved Primary, Primary, and a bit of, well, yes, Primary.

And to top it off I am now I am painstakingly pouring over 1700 plus photos from India trying to decide which ones to show at the Fireside that John and I are doing for our ward next week. THEN once I have chosen my photos, I must edit them. THEN once I've edited I need to somehow figure out how to put them in a PowerPoint presentation. THEN I must figure out how to put my video clips into the aforementioned PowerPoint. THEN I need to experiment with making Mango ice cream (as they LOVE anything Mango in India and we must serve something with Indian flair for the "after-fireside" treat).

I guess I'll end now and go ask my 8-year-old to show me how to do PowerPoint.

My computer skills are so pathetic.

the story behind the picture

Two days ago I spent the day with my mom on her birthday and I was talking to her about the photo below. She told me the story behind it which just made me laugh!

She said that picture was taken in the basement of her parent's home, on the cold concrete floor. My dad, who was not yet her husband, had her lay her coat down on the floor underneath her with the satin side up - he thought it would make a great background. He took several gorgeous black and white photos of my mom and then hand colored them.

Apparently, when my grandma (my mom's mom) saw the picture below she was so angry! She felt it was way too seductive and inappropriate for a young lady to be posing in such a way.

Oh, I love it!

83 years young

I'm not sure how old my mom was when my dad took this picture of her, but I think it was maybe last year.

Perhaps it was the year before....

Wasn't she a bomb-shell?! She still is.

Happy Birthday Mom!

(I sure wish you had the internet so that you could see this!)

Read about the Leprosy Colonies at.....

http://rsoindia2009.blogspot.com/