Gifty Giggles

So as I mentioned before we do a lot of silly little presents at Christmas and I thought I'd share the weirdest ones that were in my stocking.

Sadly the alka seltzer cupcakes didn't fizz, but they do make sweet tasting water.

If you are ever craving a bite of turkey, the Thanksgiving gumballs sure don't disappoint. Seriously. They were kind of gross. Ha ha! We did convince Lucindo (he's about 8) to try one though. He had a weird little look on his face, said "tastes kind of like bacon" then just kept chewing! The other flavors in the pack were cranberry and pumpkin pie.

My uncle has started a tradition of finding super cool socks for me and my sisters each year. Last year he got us each a set of Little Miss Matched socks. They come in sets of three! This year was Sock It To Me. He chose me the Chat Noir pair. Love 'em!

And the final little goody that I'm going to share, fix a bad haircut in a box! It's a tiny little box of gum with the directions to chew and strategically hold hair up to cover the poorly cut places. Not so sure that I'll be following the directions, but it does give you fruity fresh breath!

Mission Checklist

The ticking clock of mission papers looks something like this:

Paperwork: CHECK!

Dr. Visits: CHECK!

Dental Work: CHECK!

Eye Exam: CHECK!

Application Picture: CHECK!

Interviews: CHECK!

Hopefully it will all be done before the end of January! 

If you would like to learn more about my 18 month mission and the Gospel of Jesus Christ click here

That is the what but I don't know the where until my papers are all finished and submitted.

Update: January 16th, everything is done!

Christmas Conversations

Some bits and pieces of my holiday at home.

Christmas evening and we have the Gables over to visit. Jason walks into the room and asks my grandpa, "Do you smoke meat?" He looks up and says, "No, only pot." Jason laughs and asks again, "but do you smoke any meat?" Grandma tunes in and adds, "I only smoke weed!"

Grandma recieved a lovely assortment of hedgehogs and displayed them all over Grandpa!

Our family does a lot of funny little gag gifts and the slippers were just a placeholder for a pair of mission shoes that my grandparents will get for me.  Some of the others were completely hilarious an ridiculous though. Don't worry. I'll share them soon!

Taking A 15 Minute Break

The packing police arrives tomorrow (aka mi madre) and I want her to be impressed by how much I have done. I actually amazed myself when I got ALL of my clothes except for jackets into a big green duffel bag and a little black carry on suitcase. Yes, the color of the luggage will help you visualize their size and my stuffing abilities better.  The donation pile downstairs is growing and growing and I'm thinking this is the most ruthless I have ever been with de-junking.

I can't figure out which makes me more sad though, getting rid of something that I bought new or getting rid of something that I thrifted or was given.  When I've purchased something full price I kind of expect myself to love it forever but my styles always changing or I really don't need the thing (like all of my kitchen stuff).  But when something is thrifted I've already decided that the item was a one of a kind treasure that was worth rescuing from guaranteed boredom to death on a dusty shelf.  How can I let something be double rejected?? That's just mean! Like kicking out a foster child.

So as I've been going through everything I have made a shopping resolution that I should be standing by better. If something is on sale, or a good buy at a thrift store, don't just get it because it is a steal.  Think about it. Would I buy it if it were full price? Because that is what makes it a good deal, actually getting better price than you planned! (But still feel free to have some of those thrifty impulses).

Here's my poster child for the story. Think long and hard like this kitteh...

5 Wishes

There really isn't much that I want for Christmas since my present this year is moving home :) But here are a few little things that I love:

1

Flapperdoodle stationary 

2

Tights from we love colors

in navy, maroon, or mint green

3

Easy A on DVD (already a classic in the opinion of Erika and Elle)

4

Cute kids books :)

Pretty books

5

Funny pencils

And a bonus?

Oh baby.

Fuji Instax 

Holiday Cheer

Finally I have come to my last week of work at Porter's.  And it started out kind of sucky.  Register day. Not my favorite. Beep beep beep scan scan money. Next? 

But a young child brought some joy into my day.  Feliz Navidad was playing on our non stop Christmas music station and this little boy started humming along to it. 

He looks up at me and exclaims, 

"We sang the police la-de-da song at my school last week!".  

Don't Let This Happen To You

So as many of you know, I'm making a big move back home soon.  I had lots of things to get rid of and posted a few onto Craigslist.  One of the things I posted was my PlayStation and all of the games and parts that went with it.  I asked for $200 and I even felt that was a little much considering how outdated that system is now. I had an offer from someone and they offered $300. I was surprised and figured, well they must really want it! I received an e-mail from PayPal that said payment had been received and would be delivered to my account as soon as I sent the goods to his cousin in Nigeria.

Uh, hello?? That was not part of the agreement. I don't care that you claim to be an engineer and don't have time to look at what you're buying before you pay for it. But really? I'm not sending a 20lb package to Nigeria when a perfectly good new Wii or Xbox would cost less. Mr. Handy Dandy at the post office looked me straight in the eye and said "Nigeria is known for electronic fraud. I wouldn't go through with this if I were you."

I trust that post man. He's there almost every time I've gone to the post office and he obviously knows what he's talking about. I went home and did a little research on the PayPal account. The names on the e-mails and the PayPal invoice sent to me didn't match (Tharry Smith and Lukas Gold if you ever have a situation like this). I messaged the potential buyer and said I was no longer interested in selling the item.  I also looked at my account and there was nothing about the transaction at all. I had actually sent my own invoice and he had disregarded it for his own.

After I responded to PayPal asking for the transaction to be cancelled and the money to be
returned to Lukas or Tharry or whoever it was.  Funny story, the e-mail wasn't sent to PayPal, but it was transferactivations@officeemail.net I I google searched the e-mail and found a link to a blog 
with my exact story. 


Here is a link to that blog so you can have a secondhand account.  (link link link!) 

In conclusion, thank you to my instinct for telling me something funky was up 
and thank you Mr. Postman for helping me out.


If you EVER feel uncomfortable about a transaction through PayPal or an e-mail that you have 
received from them forward it to spoof@paypal.com and they will verify it for you.

Disappointment in My Generation.

At work today I overheard a mother chastising her son,
"Holden," she said curtly, "you have enough water, get over here now!"

Its always a little awkward to observe parenting so I try to make conversation with her. "So you're a big fan of literature?" I ask. She gives me a blank look. Just stares. "His name" I say, "Holden, like Holden Caulfield?" Her mother comes up and seems surprised. "That name is in a book??"

At this point I just feel dumbfounded. I read The Catcher in the Rye when I was 15 and between a husband, wife and her mother none of them even know that the name of their offspring comes from a great literary character?

I just kind of went about cutting their fabric and said, "well, if he grows up to be a crazy rebel of a teenager I guess now you know where he got it from." And I silently wept inside. Because they looked at me like I was crazy.

May I Have A Moment Of Silence?

Because I am about to share the most devastating yet ironically funny news of my week.  I have lots of appointments this week for my mission papers beginning this morning with a trip to the dentist. Here is a brief look at my dental history:

• 4 baby teeth pulled
• 2 adult teeth pulled 
• 4 wisdom teeth pulled
• total of 10 in all
• 4 years of braces
• only one cavity in adult teeth to date

So I go into the office expecting a normal check up, a need for a cleaning and then get outta there. Wrong-o.  Oh Elle Jane, you may brush your teeth every morning and every night like a champ, but you can not fight fate. Would you like to guess the grand total? 9. NINE! How did I go from having one filling to needing an entire mouth full of plaster??? It won't really be full of plaster because they are tiny ones that just need to be stopped before they spread but seriously? Is there nothing that I could have done to prevent this misfortune from falling upon me? 

Thanks to my insurance policy, or lack thereof, I was only covered until I was 21 so I'm just about a year too late on this one. Lucky me. Hopefully everything goes much smoother with the doctor and at least I'm covered until I'm 26.  

So kids, floss. Seriously.

Christmas is in the Air

So I will admit to a post that never was finished. I had an entire collection of Star Wars themed Halloween ideas and it just never made the final cut of being interesting enough to complete. This however, is far too cool. 

DEATH STAR LEGO ORNAMENT!!!

directions here

Apparently this guy Chris McVeigh posts all kinds of lego tutorials. Who knew there was even a program dedicated just to lego designs and instructions?? James and I used to play legos together on Sunday afternoons while we listened to Weird Al. That is some serious sibling connection time right there! I would build these really cool intricate houses and he would make giant cars and roll over them. Ok, so he would usually ask first but not always. I mean, little brothers are supposed to be destructive right? Like the time that he got a remote controlled car stuck in my hair...

One other super awesome Star Wars decoration for the holidays,

Darth Vader snowflakes! So cool! The directions can be found here for Vader and a Boba Fett and Storm Trooper version. I attempted one last night and I was surprised how simple they are to make!

Back to joy and gladness.

You might not believe me, but most of my presents are already done and one is even wrapped already! With the big move I had to be on top of things this year especially since I decided to do an entirely handmade Christmas. I'm not saying what I made because that would sure spoil the surprise for my family :) What I can say is that I completed and sent my ornament for Strumpet's Ornament Swap!

I based mine off of these stacked fabric trees by The Small Object (tutorial here)

Mine are a little modified (think only 3 layers and I used fusible fleece rather than thin fusible web)

Holiday tunes are one of my favorite parts of the season! Here is a little treat for you readers, the first of at least two parts of Christmas music! Its a short one since I'm bumming off of Shanda's computer again, but they are each little gems!

PART 1

Cute cute!

I just love all these little adorable doodles! 

Credit is given on each image

A Letter to My Brother

I've been contemplating how to share this information in the blogosphere and it seemed to me that this letter I wrote to my brother would be the best way.  This has been one of the most spiritual and poignant moments of my life. It is taking me in a direction that I had never planned for myself. It has been a few weeks and everything is coming together so well! I'll be updating more about the process as I go but for now, here is the story of how I realized that I was on the road to serving as a full time Sister Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: 


James James James. 
I have a story to tell. 

So it has been my plan since graduation to stay in Rexburg for a while and save money to start Cosmetology school in January. I changed my start date to October because I didn't want to put it off longer than I needed to, but that didn't work either. I'll be going home for Christmas in 5 weeks and school would start as soon as I got back and I felt totally unmotivated to get ready.  

On Tuesday this week I just thought to myself, Elle, why are you doing this? Why do you even want to spend so much time on doing hair and crap and have to go into debt for it when you already have a perfectly good education? I was thinking about moving to Provo. I was thinking about going home and living there and going to the hair school in Eureka. But none of it was right. 

One of my co-workers suggested that I call my home teacher and have him give me a blessing. I texted him right away and we made plans for him to come over as soon as I was off work.  Jonnie and Brian showed up right when I got home and I just started sobbing as I explained how lost I was feeling and wanting to know what the Lord wants from me.  They were understanding and it was a relief to have a few people to talk to.  Jonnie gave me a blessing and in it I was told that I am on the right path and that Heavenly Father will continue to bless me as I am diligent in following the commandments. I was also given a blessing of peace and comfort. They left and shortly after I headed upstairs to read my scriptures.  

D&C 60: 2 and 13. That was my answer. Immediately.  You need to read that section as soon as you can because it is my motivating force for the next year and a half. That's right. As soon as I opened my scriptures and started reading that verse (I had a note I took at a meeting that I wrote the verses on and just turned to it) I had the strongest most overwhelming feeling that was "Here it is Elle. This is what you must do as soon as possible or you will lose everything you are working for." 

I am meeting with my Bishop tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon to start mission papers!!!

The first time that I considered a mission it was just a good idea. It was a step in the right direction.  I felt that it was necessary for me to begin preparing myself and I think that preparation made me ready to accept the revelation when I was explicitly told to go.  I still tear up every time I have explained this story to someone close to me.

I am pretty sure that I won't be leaving until you get back because of the time to get papers done and everything, and yes. You get the car back. Lucky you! Ha ha! I'm so proud of you for setting such a good example to me of being a dutiful servant to the Lord. I've seen you grow up through the letters you've sent and I can't believe I'm going to have that experience for myself! 

Love you,

Elle