Happy Halloween!

The kids are all ready with their costumes and we are really looking forward to T-or-T'ing with the cousins this year. We haven't carved a pumpkin yet, but I guess there is still time. Last night after Heather went to bed, I fashioned this Halloween Willow Tree figurine out of an older, non-festive one that she had.
(Ha - that line just reminded me of a Jack Handy quote - maybe it's the bumpy whittle marks that triggered it):

"I remember how my Great Uncle Jerry would sit on the porch and whittle all day long. Once he whittled me a toy boat out of a larger toy boat I had. It was almost as good as the first one, except now it had bumpy whittle marks all over it. And no paint, because he had whittled off the paint."

Here are the closest Halloween-related Jack Handy quotes I could find:

"Sometimes when I feel like killing someone, I do a little trick to calm myself down. I'll go over to the persons house and ring the doorbell. When the person comes to the door, I'm gone, but you know what I've left on the porch? A jack-o-lantern with a knife stuck in the side of it's head with a note that says "You." After that I usually feel a lot better, and no harm done."

"If they ever have a haunted house for dogs, I think a good display would be a bathtub full of soapy water."

"I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away."

"There is nothing sadder than a mosquito sucking on a mummy. Give it up little guy."


Have a safe night everyone,

- C

Cake Party

I know I just posted, but while reading the JTASJ blog I remembered that we had some video footage to share. As Tanis mentioned, I thought I was doing good when I volunteered to bring home a giant cake left over from the family reunion. Unfortunately, reality set in and I realized that it was too much (and too gross) to eat. Instead of just throwing it away, we let the kids have some fun first.






- C

And the winner is...

Tonight we had our ward chili and cake cookoff. I had signed myself up to make "Rev's Pepperoni Chili" (dad's old recipe - thanks Crystal and Jewel!) and also put Heather's name down for "Black Tie Mousse Cake".

I'm still not sure how it happened, but suffice to say that somehow, through an unforeseeable series of events, Heather ended up making both the chili and the cake. However, when the time came to leave, Heather was apprehensive about going to the event (I won't say "grumpy" here). She was worried that the cake hadn't turned out very well and was concerned that Tyson might be too sick to go (looks like pink eye - this time the credit might go to Tanis). She was a trooper though and consented after I promised her that we would keep Tyson away from everyone and that it would be fun for us to get out of the house.

Approximately 10 people entered chilis and there were just as many desserts that followed. I thought that Heather's chili was the best - but that might just be due to the fact that I grew up eating the over-large batches that dad often made. I also thought that Heather's cake was the best - but that might just be due to the fact that hers was more awesome than anyone else's.

I think we both had butterflies when they began to award the three prizes, and I was tempted to start throwing around paper-dinnerware when the "Best Chili" award went to someone else. However, they did call Heather's name for "Spiciest Chili" and before she made it back to our table, they announced that she had won "Best Cake" as well. It turns out that they used different judges for the cakes; otherwise I'm sure they wouldn't have picked the same person for two of the three awards, and left so many others disappointed.

As we were putting our coats on at the end of the night, I quoted a line from an episode of The Office that we had watched recently. I asked Heather, 'How do you tell someone that you care about, deeply, that "I told you so"'?

And while we're on the subject of questions, the answer to the title of this post is:

Me.

Sure I didn't do any of the work, and don't deserve credit for Heather's awards; but after all, I am the one she went home with.

- C

Goldie

Sad Day at the Rausch House

I wish that the blog that would have ended the drought would have contained cute pictures of first days of school and other exciting events that have taken place since we last posted. However, it really is a good thing that Chad put the cute video of Daisy on because it will be the last video of her. Sadly she died sometime Friday night. I guess while we were sleeping. Chad went upstairs Saturday morning to get her out of her cage to let the kids play with her and made the discovery. Mason was with him and Chad said she was still sleeping and that they would play with her in a little while. He took off to the pet store in hopes that he could find a match although I felt it was best to tell the kids the truth--just "one" of the unpleasant things that need to be dealt with when having a pet. Anyways, unfortunately he wasn't able to find another Daisy--only a Goldie?!? So, a really sad day for me because Goldie is a gerbil. I really never thought I would have a hamster, but a mouse. Just makes me cringe every time I think about it! The kids love her though so I guess what can you do!

- H

Brave little hamster

I feel like we needed to post something, anything, just to end our blog drought. So here is a quick video of Tyson feeding Daisy.
The pet store clerk told us that she had a nice personality, and it is amazing how patient she is. I would have bit Tyson a long time ago.






Will post again soon(er),

- C