Our Halloween Answer to Candy

I think it was successful. The kids loved it. Even the little ones chose an eyeball over playdough.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Aidan's costume was "The guy who follows your kids home from the bus." He wore a hoodie. What could be scarier?

Book Recommendation

Unvarnished Truth! WOW, For the first time. I was looking for a book at my library download and ran into this unvarnished, unblemished, and edgy review.   Obviously published before everyone could be cancelled.  

"At HarperCollins, we are committed to customer satisfaction. Before proceeding with your purchase, please take the following questionnaire:

1. Which of the following do you appreciate?

A Women with somewhat horse-ish facial features.

B Women who, while not super Jew-y, are more identifiably Jewish than, say, Natalie Portman.

C Frequent discussion of unwanted body hair.

2. Are you offended by the following behavior?

A Instructing one's grandmother to place baked goods in her rectal cavity.

B Stripping naked in public–eleven times in a row.

C Stabbing one's boss in the head with a writing implement.

3. The best way to treat an emotionally fragile young girl is:

A Murder the main course of her Thanksgiving dinner before her very eyes.

B Tell her that her older sister is prettier than she, and then immediately die.

C Prevent her suicide by recommending she stay away from open windows.

If you read the above questions without getting nauseous or forming a hate Web site, you are ready to buy this audiobook! Please proceed to the cashier."

ABOUT DANG TIME SOMEBODY WAS TRUTHFUL ABOUT THE CONTENT OF A BOOK! YAY!

No, I'm not telling you the name so you can read it. Think of it as saving you from yourself. You can thank me later.  

"If the women don't find you handsome..."

He actually said that when I happened upon this.

"If the women don't find you handsome..."

We had to carefully and judiciously edit the photos 'cause it's against his company's policy to have their logo associated with asinine behavior.

Yes, that is a wet/dry vacuum dangling 30 feet up.

"...they should at least find you handy." --  Red Green

Happy Labor Day everyone!

Beautiful Children's Books

Once upon a time, a long time ago, one of my Utah neighbors wrote a book and her husband illustrated it and it was beautiful. It was a fanciful little tale of Fanny (another neighbor sat as the model) whose fairy godmother always showed up late. So while she waited, Fanny was talked into marrying Heber and she set about making a life. When the Godmother finally showed, Fanny had to decide whether to leave Heber and her little boys to go live her dream.

I won't spoil the ending, but to hear my neighbor retell the signing with the publisher, she said that one of the editors at Dial books in New York recommended a total rewrite--with the opposite ending, because one should always live one's dream.

My neighbors were Caralyn and Mark Buehner and now they have a website. Visit their site for me as a favor so their blog will begin to move up the list on google. (hits means placement).

Buehnerbooks.com P.S. Scholastic published a book of top illustrators for children's books and Mark was on the list!! WOW! I just checked it into my school's library. Another famous Mormon, cool huh?

Their other books are wonderful too, but my little girl was raised on the reality of this fairy tale and it's one of our favorite.

Max the Taxi Dog, Escape of Marvin the Ape, Balloon Farm are some of our favorites. Snowmen at Night is about our neighborhood in Salt Lake and the neighbors who would go out at night and move people's snowmen around. Look for them at the Library.

These books have some of the most entertaining illustrations I've ever seen in children books and the dialog teaches great values. Oh, PS, there are spotters on every page for the kids to search for.

Chim, chimminey, chim chimminey, achoo!

Ian is so handy around the house, and on the house. This was his job this summer and he did it marvelously.

Who knew that chimney sweeps really got that dirty--completely unintentionally.

Darcey Push Mowers - Summer 2010

Darcey Boys idea of push mowing:

Farewell Ian

We were at a party and while leaving, we noticed a foreclosure house next door and went by to snoop. Aidan said, "Why are you looking at that? Are we moving now that Ian's leaving for college?"

Ian responded, "Yeah, they're moving, cause you've been bad, to someplace with a really, really small, nasty room just for you."

Aidan shot back, "Like a dorm?"

Ah, I'll miss the witty reparte between those two!