Halloween Post

First the scary story, then the treat.
This is the only real scary story I have had happen to me. And it really did! So with that in mind, sit back and read.
I was about 10 or 11 years old, which would make my youngest sister Ani, about 7 or 8. Her best friend Jennifer was over visiting our house. My sister's bedroom and my bedroom were across the hall from one another. I was sitting in the doorway of my bedroom reading a book, while my sister and her friend were in their doorway playing with a ouija board. I am sitting there, all innocent, wrapped up in my book, when I hear a horrible scream! It was my sister and her friend, both screaming. I look up from my book, across the hall, to see....
(yes, this really happened, I am not pulling your leg, honest!)
the triangle thingy part of the ouija board set levitating about 8 inches off the board, kind of attached to my sister's fingers. I believe I screamed too, we dropped everything and went running and screaming and looking for our mother.
That ended any kind of hope I would grow up to be a ouija board operator. They spooked me after that and I never did play with them again. We, to this day, have no answer as to why it happened. I blame that event for giving me dreams about telekensis though.
Just as well, when I became a Mormon later, I found out the Church frowns on ouija boards anyway. Not because they don't believe they can communicate with spirits, but because they do feel they sometimes can! The Church believes in good and evil and that spirits live on after this life. But! They also think that spirits who have passed on should be busy with God's work and the spirits who are not busy doing that are NOT the kind you wish to be chatting with.
My one and only scary Halloween type story. Hope you enjoyed it. Now for the treat.
You remember Coenister Caer don't you? Before her untimely demise and withdrawal from the bloggitude? Well before she passed on, I made her some rat costumes, well, rat hats that is.
You know me and my needle felting obsession. Well I got some wool out and my imagination and I poked the wool until it did what I wanted. So for your viewing Halloween pleasure: Rats Dressed Up for Halloween!

Peter Rat-Bit!


A Devil


And last but not least, an Elephant


I enjoyed making them and I got a very nice thank you note by way of the U.S. postal service.
Happy Halloween to all my bloggity dalinks and I will be posting Halloween pics of Little Man and the Pea in their costumes soon.

Monday Again!

Well Bloggy dears, even though you just were gifted with mountain pics on fri, I must get back on track. And honestly? I think Friday's pics were prettier. The snow has mostly melted again and I think the mountains are looking a bit drab. Well, as drab as beautiful mountains you see everyday from your window can look. But here goes!

Normally Mondays are my favorite day, a day to breathe deep and recover from the weekend. But there will be no rest for the wicked in the Tangled Casa. Little Man has the day off school. Argh and the kid is WILD! I mean it, LITERALLY, bouncing off the walls. I worry the kid is going to bruise himself and put a hole in the wall. It is almost noon here and he is finally settling down. Whew. And since he is so cute, you might as well enjoy that also.

As you can see cute is part of the reason the kid still lives. Plus he is a good snuggler.
I am still coughing, although much improved, instead I gave it to Bald Man who is now whiny and under the weather. Raise your cuteness shield otherwise you just might implode from a lethal dose of cute! Here it comes...I shall leave you with a picture of the cutest grand daughter in the whole world.

Hopefully the week shall improve! Either way, you'll be hearing about it!

Mountain Friday Instead

My bloggiest darlings, you have been so neglected this week! But your dear Jo-Jo has been a teeny bit overwhelmed with the many things on her plate. So sit down and I shall fill in the bits.
Monday- you already know I didn't get the job. Sigh. But you know what?? Your kindest words really did help! I was surprised at how much better I felt after getting some bandaids for my wounded ego. My mother, so sweetly said, "They will be sorry. One day they will say, dang, we should have hired Jo." How nice is that? Moms are good at that stuff.
Tues-I awoke feeling still not so great with this bad cold/bronchitis and so, spent most of the day feeling sorry for myself. I did take a picture for you, even though I didn't feel up to posting it. It started snowing and the mountain was gone!

Wednesday-Gravy! What a day! I had to speed off to Salt Lake City to meet in the Federal Building with
Senator Orrin Hatch and several other parents whose children have been affected by the insurance cuts. If you don't remember, Little Man's insurance is refusing to pay for his formula any longer because he is able and willing to drink it instead of receiving it by tube. Well his doctor refuses to do the tube, saying with Little Man's immune problems, it could actually kill him. So we have been battling this issue with the state of Utah for over a year now. Along with some other parents, we went to plead our case to the Senator, hoping for some intervention.
Getting there was a comedy of errors. I wrote down the wrong address. Okay, no, I didn't write it down wrong, I READ it wrong. My S looked like 5 and I ended up, oh about 20 blocks from where I needed to be. I then proceeded to make a fool out of myself by being unable to find the federal parking lot, and I am sure the parking guard must have thought I was some sort of a bumbling idiot after he had to come help me back up properly. I finally found a metered spot to park in and the meter was broken!! ARRGH! I was late by now, and I had to hop back in the car and park somewhere where the meter worked. I was feeling all coughy and stupid by the time I got up to the room.
It was an okay meeting, and I am praying something positive will come from it. But with my cold and the running back and forth to Salt Lake City, it left me with little energy for posting.
Thursday-Bald Man calls me and tells me that the Dr.s office had sent Little Man's prescriptions to our old house and if we needed them soon, we just needed to hop in our van and drive to Salt Lake City, (AGAIN!) and pick them up. Mind you kindest internet friends, this city is an hour each way and this would make the THIRD time this week to drive and I am not feeling very well! Well the Princess and I traded. I watched the Pea and she drove to Salt Lake. It was a good trade.
The Pea makes me laugh. I hear some yelling coming from the kitchen, a kind of "help me" sort of cry, not desperate, but a bit unhappy. And this is what I found.


I unstranded the Pea and then locked the dishwasher so she couldn't get in it again. She is 14 months now and still my heart's delight.
And now, without further ado, your promised weekly mountain pictures.
The view from my window:

And seeing as how they dressed up to show off for my out of state internet company, I had to drive a bit closer so you could see how very pretty they looked.


And another:

Today I woke up able to breathe through my nose again, so I think I am actually getting better. God Bless Dayquil and Nyquil too.

So Sad

I didn't get the job. I am soooo disappointed. The gal called me and said I was one of their top two contenders and that I made a very strong showing in a large field. But still, I didn't get the job and I had my salary all spent in my head. This gal also told me there was another part time job coming up that she was on the selection committee for and she would be very interested in interviewing me for that job. Sigh. I feel so, I don't know. Blah, disappointed, down on myself, a loser. I just want to either cry or go shopping. I am feeling better from this awful cold. That is the one bit of good news.
I'm going to go bury myself in chocolate or something.

Dayquil

I think that I shall never see,
Any drug as lovely as thee
I am coughing and my ribs do ache
Thou does soothe them for my sake
My nose is a running font of snot
And my forehead is burning far too hot
Dayquil, beloved, these things thou does cure
All of four hours, thou does endure
I press my lips against thy gel
Sure thou wilt deliver me from hell
I weakly raise my hand to thee
And gasp ever so breathily
Dayquil my savior, without you I would curse,
Because without you, I would feel, even WORSE!

Friday List

This is not necessarily in order of importance.

1. I have a bad cold and am currently ascertaining the possibility of actually hacking up a lung.
2. Brown Boy arrived this morning and he and Pygmy Child are shopping for a ring.
3. I have a second job interview on Mon and I have to a presentation I am ill prepared for. (The "ill" part is doing double duty there)
4.Little Man has a short day on Friday, leaving me with less time than usual to get anything done.
5.I went back to sleep after Little Man went to school and slept til 10. Whoo Hoo!
6.I need to go to the grocery store and stock up for the weekend.
7. The aforementioned trip to the store must take place without the presence of our youngest. (This is for my sanity and for his health)
8. Oldest Son and Girlfriend announced they are going to make us grandparents again in the spring.*

* I TOLD you it wan't in the order of importance!
And by the way? We are thrilled. More on that later.

Take a Walk With Me...

on Mountain Monday! I awoke this morning at 5 am to a horrific leg cramp! Ouch! But while I laid there, rubbing my leg, I heard raindrops outside the window, thought about the clouds and wondered what kind of a picture I would get for Mountain Monday. Sure enough, when I got my camera out and opened the blinds, I found the clouds are VERY low!

If you scroll down to another monday, you will be able to see the clouds are covering pretty much everything.
I feel obligated to provide some edification for the ignorant Sugar Pixie. No, everything west of the Mississippi is NOT flat. Ahem, we had the 2002 Winter Olympics here in Utah! AND, our state's motto is the Greatest Snow on Earth. The mountain you see from my window every Monday is part of the Rocky Mountains. We have 3 ski resorts within about a half hour drive of our apartment, and way more than that if you are willing to drive an hour or so. We are a desert, which is why the snow is so great here. As the clouds move over the deserty areas of Utah, the moisture just gets sucked right out. Leaving nothing but a wonderful skiing powder to fall upon the mountains and valleys with abundance every winter. If you are dying for more info, here ya go!
Wasatch Mountains
So, public service announcement over, I will share with you the short drive I took to share my beautiful mountains with you. I drove straight east from our apartment for 2 and half miles and here is the treasure at the end of the black top. Enjoy!


The leaves are changing color and everything looks so beautiful and fresh after the rainfall.

I suppose there are much uglier places to live than Utah.

The "W" Word

Ah yes, such a productive day! Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I went back to bed and took a nap after everyone left this morning. There really isn't anything quite as restorative as a good nap. But on the list today to get done was something I could no longer ignore. Sigh. I did some grocery shopping at the 100$ Store. Ya, know, that BIG warehousey store. We call it the 100$ store because you really can't get out of there without spending less than that.
I guess I bought too many frozen things, because when I got home there wasn't enough room in the freezer for everything. Which means, oh no, I have to defrost and CLEAN the dang thing. Now in our house, (as compared to the apartment we have been living in since June)I had a very nice side by side fridge/freezer. And downstairs in the basement? An older but HUGE upright freezer. I am not used to curtailing my shopping habits for room. Part of the room issue is my freezer in the apartment is NOT a frost free. So between stuff that needed to get chucked and the ice, yes, I was forced, against my will to defrost and clean the dang thing today. But now it is done, it is clean, it is roomy and I am feeling quite self righteous about the whole thing.
Now on to the fun stuff. The "W" word? See if you can guess. When you become a mother for the first time, there are so many things you dream of as you hold your little one in your arms. First steps, drivers license, proms, sweet dreams of a future yet to be. If you are the mother of a girl, some of the dreams are very special. Personally? I am loving having one of my dreams come true.

Isn't she beautiful? 25 is a good age to be married. Not too young, like her mother. It really was so much fun to go shopping with her. I was able to snap off that one pic before I was told NO pictures. Opps. But the older lady obviously doesnt' know digital cameras, or she would have told me to delete it. But she didn't, so I have a precious picture memory of one of many upcoming days as we plan a very special event.
One more, just for fun!


A wedding. Wow. Not real sure when my kids got so old, but it happened. Now this event to plan, mostly likely for the spring. One of my little birdies is going to fly away. If this is what it is all about, what parents spend all these years working towards, (independence) why do I feel so sad? Now I know why the parents cry at the wedding.

Celebrating Illegal Immigration

On the Rez, (reservation, which for the newbies, most of my family continues to live on) today is a day off and is called Native American Day. Personally I like to give my respects to the man who started illegal immigration. I find the whole brou-ha-ha going on right now about fences and the outcry to truly be amusing. I think it is funny for one immigrant to call another illegal. For me? Indians have a long memory and I think it is only a matter of time frame if you do not orginate from America. Remember to be kind to those who got here later than you did. And if you have never learned the truth about good 'ole Chris, here is a link for your edification. Enjoy.
The truth about Christopher Columbus
Today is Monday and the mountain from my window has the top shrouded in clouds. Laying across the folds of the mountains, like a grandmother's thick shawl tucked against the cold frosty mornings.

Here are a couple of sunset pictures I couldn't resist sharing. These are overlooking the Great Salt Lake.


And one more:
Pretty huh? I am enjoying looking at my beautiful countryside through your eyes. I see things and think "I should share this with my bloggy friends". I notice things I wouldn't have before, beautiful pictures I took for granted. But with my bloggy eyes, they are brand new. Thanks!
Don't forget to go check out my guest post on
Feminist Mormon Housewives.

Check Me Out!!

Feminist Mormon Housewives did it! They posted my "Day in the Life of"! Yay! You have simply got to go check it out, just to make me feel good.

Mountain Monday

I have decided to make the view from my window a weekly thing. So you are now going to be treated to a picture of the mountains outside my window, every Monday. Lucky ducks, all of you, but especially me, who gets to see it in real life every day! So without further ado:

The early snow melted, but if you look close you can see scarlet and orange on the mountain as the colors are changing. One of the things Utah is superior to California in is 4 Seasons! Yup, four glorious, undeniably, delineated, seasons. We woke up to a gentle rain this morning and the air smells so wonderful. Happy Monday indeed.
On to the weekend news, brought to you courtesy of valium with a shot of whiskey. No, no I am joking, but I might have made it through the insanity a bit less ruffled if I did imbibe.
Brown Boy was here for the weekend, so that always makes it crazy. Reshuffling of bodies, meals, etc. But they are happy. Need proof? Say no more!
And the big M word is coming up in the conversation. So perhaps in the spring? That would be nice. We approve. Pygmy Child is 25, will be nearly 26 in the spring. Nice age to be married. Not too young as so many of the youngsters in Utah usually do. 19 seems to be the preferred age. ACK!
I did have a chance to get a gift needle felted for Brown Boy's mother. I am quite impressed with the increase in my skills and creativity. I did the pumpkin with no pattern or anything!

I am quite addicted and it is so relaxing and fun.
A big announcement for me, I am going to be published! Well sort of. Not paid for and on another blog, but still! Recently I found a place of like minded people and I have been happily reading along. The blog is called
Feminist Mormon Housewives and I love them. They are doing a series called, "A Day in the Life Of" to be featured every Sunday. My piece is entitled, "A Day in the Life of a Special Needs Mommy", so watch that space for the next few Sundays. I will give you a heads up when I see it.
Little Man is doing well physically and seems to almost completely recovered from the effects of the Chemical Lobotomy given to him by the idiot doctor. He is not sleeping terribly well, because he isn't going to bed until 11 or so every night. That isn't good, but once he is asleep, we are gratified to note he is sleeping well and not waking up ninety billion times in the night as he sometimes does.
My beloved Pea is learning so many signs. Bear, baby, fish, dog, please, thank you, more and they are all so cute. A bit behind on the talking thing, but her mother was slow to start too, since physically she was so ahead of the pack. Did I tell you Pea is doing somersaults all by herself??? The child is amazing, really!
Ah, and guess what? Princess dumped Pinhead! Oh yeah, doing a happy dance here. Two things she said made her re-think her decision. One, she saw Pinhead's father go off on Pinhead's mother and it scared her. (Verbally, but still unacceptable) and Pinhead's mother told her she felt very trapped in her marriage. Princess decided she wasn't that desperate, so Pinhead is heartbroken and our family is celebrating a near miss. wheewwww.
So there ya go, all the news that is fit to print.
I love the quiet of Monday compared to the noise and chaos of the weekends. I am off to enjoy a bit of chocolate and some reading before I do anything serious.
My love to all my bloggy readers!