Halloween, Spiderman Style

Happy Halloween! Whoop-dee-do! Halloween doesn't pack the punch it used to for me. I don't eat the candy because I just eat candy all the time anyway, so what's another handful at Halloween? Maybe I just need a really cool costume to wear to work. Yeah, that'd go over well.

Well, Jessi and Angela had waaaaaay too much fun while I was at work. Something about realizing their inner beauty??

And Chandler was the debonair Indiana Jones who looks like he just discovered the lost land of beeooottyful women. How can he keep his serious look with such purty girls around??

What would this movie be called? Maybe "Indiana Jones and the Lost World of Beeuutiful Women??" Something is just not right about these pictures.

But it was what I saw when I got home that scared me the most--Spiderman.

No one knows Spiderman's real identity. He is very secretive. But he's not afraid to reveal the identity of his grandma, at least so he can go trick-or-treating with her.

Not many people know that when Spiderman goes trunk-or-treating, and it gets really cold, he wears a coat. I bet you didn't see that on the movie!

We did trick-or-treat at a few houses as well. Man, this house was super-scary! It had mechanical zombies moving around, screaming, and coming out of graves, and even had a spooky blue ghost floating inside the window! Try to open the picture bigger so you can see the ghost.

Spiderman, save me!

Happy Birthday, Nanny!

Nanny (affectionate nickname for my grandmother) had her 78th birthday today, so we all went out to dinner at Perkins. Jaydn's hiding on the seat next to Jessi. Melissa had waffles for dinner?! I just shared the appetizer sampler with Jessi. Appetizer sampler--now that is really Jessi's style. And, of course, Jaydn got the grilled cheese sandwich. Lemon Meringue (Nanny's favorite) and Chocolate Creme (Jaydn's favorite) pies for dessert. It was Nanny's birthday, but when you bring along a six year-old, you cater to both the birthday girl and the sweet-tooth boy.

I'm grateful to have such a great family. And, of course, a wonderful Nanny.

See what we're missing out on?!

The good thing about having lots of links to other blogs on your blog is you can steal pictures and make them your own. Every time I look at the list of links on the right side of the screen I get this competitive spirit, like there's some race to see who can have the most blogfriends.

So, anyway, thanks to the Brady's for taking this picture of our beloved pineapple. The Brady's moved into our house in American Samoa. Pineapple takes more than a year to grow completely, so while it was fun to plant a pineapple stump in the ground it was utterly worthless because all we got out of it was a sweet picture. Enjoy your pineapple, Brady's! ;)

However, judging by the date on this picture, this pineapple had only aged about two weeks from when we left. This time, thanks to... nobody for watering and growing this plant. No, sorry Brady's, we love you and all, but no one is really to thank for plants in AS growing wild (maybe just God?). After a while, you start wishing you didn't have such unusually good plant growth outside your house. Sometimes it felt as if the plants were going to wrap around the whole house and squeeze us to death.

Someday, we are going to be out in the garden, or the flower bushes, or the bleepin' grass for that matter, and we're gonna be wondering why it doesn't just grow. I mean, after all the watering and care, and you don't do squat!

Then we'll look back on the bananas, the pinapples, the coconuts, the breadfruit, the taro, the wild, twisty weeds, the flowers, the grass in the backyard that grows as high as the house, etc., etc., etc., heck, even the bugs, and we're going to sit down on our brown patch of grass and start contemplating a move back to shloppy green mold-land.

Hmm... brown grass, freezing nostrils, and snow, or mold, weeds, bugs, and sweat?

I'll have to sit on that one for a while.

Adoption

Tomorrow Jessi and I are presenting in an adoption fireside. The fireside is focused on people like us that are trying to adopt. We are going to talk about how we have to have faith that God will provide for us in His time if we are diligent. We're also talking about how your patience in the adoption process has to be coupled with happiness, togetherness, and normalcy. Being together as a family, traveling, etc., has really helped our little family. And I really don't think God ever wants us to be unhappy.

I think it's interesting how there are so many adoptive couple profiles online. What's so interesting about it is that there are maybe just as many orphan children profiles online. What makes it so hard for adoptive couples to make that connection with orphan children?

And I'm just thinking about the United States. Once you start thinking about children in other countries who would do anything for a mother and father, for any sense of family, it makes you want to cry. Every child deserves a mother and a father. One day, I know that one or two of those children will be able to look at Jessi and I and call us mother and father. That'll sure give me joy.

And someday, Jaydn will be able to share his sweetness, maturity and friendship with his own little brother or sister, or both. Won't that be a priceless blessing!

I didn't want this to turn into a sappy blog entry, but as I got to thinking about what I was going to say tomorrow, I realized just how much I wanted to talk about adoption from my heart. And then I couldn't stop putting my feelings onto the screen.

November is National Adoption Month. I didn't realize that fact last November. Wouldn't it be wonderful if this November:

One more child was adopted rather than being aborted,
One more child was adopted rather than being abandoned,
One more child was adopted rather than living in poverty,
One more child was adopted rather than being forced into child servitude,
One more child was adopted rather than living in an orphanage, or
One more child was adopted rather than being moved from foster family to foster family?

Wouldn't it?

Out Standing in Our Field

Well, it's actually my in-law's field, but, you know. I just wanted to say that.

We decided to have family pictures taken today. No studio. Just my camera, and a friend who's good at taking pictures.












Now THESE photos are us out standing in someone else's field. Eeek! Trespassing!




That's enough cheesy smiles to last a lifetime!

Good ol' funnies

These are some of my favorite cartoons. They're so good that I had to share them with you.

First, there's "Kill the wabbit!" - Opera style:



Then, my personal favorite -- Daffy Duck gets messed up.

Daffy's my favorite cartoon character. I could explain why, but that's for another blog entry.



They just don't make cartoon characters like Daffy and Bugs anymore.

Brain Freeze

Tonight I feel like Bill and Ted, after they go to the Circle K and get slushees and drink them so fast they get a brain freeze. I sit down at the computer to type a blog, and I can't think of one thing to talk about. Only I'm not eating a slushee.

Bogus.

Columbus Day

One of the little perks about working in American Samoa was that I got ALL federal holidays off from work. Add those to the handful of Samoan holidays that I've mentioned on this blog, and I had a good two weeks or more of holidays--including Columbus Day!

Well, today I got Columbus Day off again! But since there are not big Columbus Day celebrations in Idaho (not a big Italian population) I had to think of some things to do. After over a month of 8-5, what do I do on what is essentially another Saturday?

I started to feel a little like Phil Murphy--I need a new hobby. http://samoanews.blogspot.com/2007/10/i-need-hobby.html

I did get to go eat lunch at Jaydn's school today (e-school baked chicken is just blagh). I don't know what's wrong with me, but it's hard for me to act like an adult in an elementary school. I could never be a good disciplinarian-teacher. I'm just the big goofy-lookin' kid sitting next to Jaydn eating my orange slices. So the kids treat me like a jungle-gym--climbing, hitting, throwing food at me, etc.

I especially like the after-school recess. (Gosh, that's what Jaydn says about school anyway!) But I can't handle the multi-colored milk choices, the spoonful of mixed vegetables, or the tasteless baked chicken that you have to face at lunchtime. I guess I can leave the everyday school lunch to Jaydn and his friends.

Maybe I just need to go back to work. What am I saying?!

Once there was a snowman...

You know that song, the one about the prideful but short-lived snowman who gets a big head and grows "tall, tall, tall" because he thinks he is soooo much better (and taller) than all the rest of the snow, but he doesn't realize that the snowfall has come really early in the year, that we're in for an Indian (pardon the slur) summer, and that tomorrow the temperatures are going to reach the 60's, and then tomorrow comes, and all of the sudden he is being humbled (you see, because he didn't humble himself, he is humbled by the Lord - see Alma 32) and is melting "small, small, small," until he is nothing but moisture to the grass, and, eventually, whatever is left of him is evaporated into thin air? Yeah, remember that dude? Well, he's standing outside my in-law's house, and tomorrow, "poof!" He'll be gone!

After all we did to put him together! Heck, we even gave him a nice view of the passing cars, and he couldn't even crack a smile of gratitude.

Take a good look, people, because this may be the last time you see Mr. "goody-three-snowballs" Snowman. Once the afternoon sun comes out tomorrow, this guy's going down!!!

You probably never realized that "Once There Was a Snowman" was about pride, did you? Well, now you know. And knowing is half the battle!

Congratulations, Mike!

Our good friend, Mike Keyser, was just appointed as acting CEO of the American Samoa Power Association. They couldn't have picked anyone better. Mike will do a great job for ASPA. Congratulations, Mike!

http://samoanews.com/friday.10052007/story14.html

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Oh, look! I'm a basketball player!