Freaks and Geeks

So, my sister and I have a really good time when we get together. Recently, when my son needed his baptism pictures taken and my incredibly gifted brother-in-law offered to take them--my sister and I decided to get in on he action a bit. We jumped into the "lighting test" picture, and as you might guess, we were a little bit silly. The most ridiculous thing was my brother-in-law's response to the silliness. He took a particularly goofy picture of the two of us, and doctored it up a bit. Marf and I have been laughing about the picture ever since. I think the funniest part is Marf's unreasonably large eyes, lack of lips, and hump on her neck--but my giant nose, withered finger, and extra-large bicep are pretty entertaining as well! I just thought the world would enjoy a good laugh at our expense as much as we have!

Ethan's Baptism

Ethan (my oldest son) was baptized on Saturday. Despite multiple glitches, including a near broken foot from my husband, FIVE accompanists in a 24hr period, people showing up late, and Bry and I forgetting to pack an extra pair of underwear for Ethan, everything eventually came together and Ethan was baptised. I was surprised at how stressful the entire event ended up being for me. I was really looking forward to a nice, stress-free day, but I guess that that is never really the mother's lot.

The actual baptism went very nicely. My parents had brought some water from the Jordan River in Israel back with them, and before the baptism, they put it into the font so that Ethan could be baptized in a little piece of the Jordan River. Ethan very nearly had to be baptized twice, as his foot came out of the water, but the witnesses agreed that he was indeed under the water completely at some point. Despite the many things that had gone wrong initially, it was very nice to be reminded of why we are here--which I don't know about you, but I need reminding of now and again. I have a tendency to get caught up in the details and loose sight of the big picture, as was nearly the case with the baptism. In the end however, if nothing else, I was able to re-focus--if only for that small moment, and remember what is really important in our lives, and stressful day or not, it was worth it!

Angels and Demons

OK, I have to state here that my favorite holiday is Halloween. I love the spookiness and the decorating and the Haunted Houses and Ghost Stories and all. It is because of this that I feel the following declaration must be made... (Excuse me whilst I step upon my soapbox) Halloween is a time for severed limbs, jars of floating eyeballs, statues that scream at you as you walk by, and chainsaws. It is a time that is filled with things that screech, howl, and go BUMP in the night. For those of us needing a break from the usual (which I frequently do), it is a welcome time. I embrace it wholeheartedly (and by this, of course I mean this literally--by taking out my own bloody heart, and holding it in my decrepit hands in the true spirit of Halloween.) Now, as I am sure that you have noticed..there seems to be some overlap between Halloween, and another rather large holiday. I am of course referring to Christmas...which is a lovely holiday in it's own right, however, I just don't see Halloween and Christmas as holidays that should even know that the other exists, let alone be apparent friends. There is nothing that is more disturbing than walking down the isles of Halloween, watching some chainsaw dummy or phantom ghost try to scare you out of your wits, and then to come face to face with some darling cherubic snowman at the end of the isle. WHAT THE CRAP IS THAT ALL ABOUT!?!?! And I'm not kidding you, if I see one more screaming zombie that slowly pulls his head off next to a manger scene, I'm gonna scream louder than that zombie, I can tell you that! I thought that we were trying to provide that "All is calm, all is bright" kinda atmosphere for the newborn King, not scare him to death with a mirror that screams bloody murder when you look into it. I AM SERIOUS, WHAT THE CRAP IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!?!? I understand that there are those who are anxiously awaiting Christmas, even to the extent to listen to Christmas music beginning in June, but I am sure that even Christmas enthusiasts will agree with me. Don't you think that the overlap borders just a bit on sacrilege? Look, I'm not trying to get my favorite holiday more than it's fair share of time in the great commercial parade, I'm just saying that maybe it's best to keep the Heavenly Choirs in the backroom for a while--at least until the Haunts have returned to the underworld.

There Must be an Evil Spirit in that Vegetable!!

Canning season is upon us, and I recently spent a day canning salsa with two of my gilrfriends, June and Carah. (See previous post "A Day Filled With Jam and Love.) I was in charge of cutting onions for said salsa. Now, for those of you who don't know, I spent much of my adolescence working at Quizno's for my uncle, and have sliced a great number of onions in my day, and consider myself quite immune to their tear-inducing effects. However, the onions that were purchased by Carah and June were more than just onions--they were SUPER ONIONS FROM OUTER SPACE!!! I am not kidding--these onions had been sent here by their parents on Krypton and had derived their super-powers from the yellow sun of Earth. If only I had had some Kryptonite handy!!! Before long, I had sucommed to their powers, and was subdued. June, who at this point was not only unconcerned by the evil which had overpowered me, but was laughing so uncontrollably that I now highly suspect that she is one of the evil minions of the alien onion super-race, eventually was able to pull herself together enough to get me some volleyball goggles. I looked ridiculous, but my pain was lessened somewhat.

In the end, I had a thought concerning onions. While they are lovely, and add a fabulous flavor to almost all things that they are involved in--if I were the world's first person to cut into an onion, I would have been sure that the vegetable was possessed by evil spirits, and would never cut into one again! I probably would have also been sure that I had let the evil spirit out, and would forever be haunted by the spirit of the onion. I'm not gonna lie, I am not sure that I am not currently being haunted by the Evil Spirit of the Onions, as I still can smell it's evil upon my hands--days and days later!! Does anyone know a good exorcist--preferably one that specializes in onions? (I suppose that if they end up being an alien super race, perhaps Spec. Agents Mulder and Scully would be more appropriate!)