I'm glad I don't look like you....

"I'm glad I don't look like you." Yes, a coworker actually said that to me today.
Here's the story: Started getting congested today and hoarse. Pretty much felt miserable but apparently misjudged how I looked when a co-worker said to me, "Well, I'm just glad I don't look like you. I feel sick, but you look like you look sick." I think she meant it in the kindest way, I wasn't offended- and when my co-teacher and I got back to our classroom we shared a quick chuckle.

And in fairness, I had another co-worker today ask me if I was OK because I was wandering around in a daze. You know what it's like when you're congested, right, it's like you're living underwater. You can only half hear and you can't smell much.

Now that I am home though, I am feeling much better :)
And speaking of looks.... I just got a new one! I have bangs now!!!! In case anyone was wondering......

Are you glad you don't look like me, too????

Why it's a good thing Preschoolers can't sue......

I've mentioned "Colton" in previous posts. Never a dull moment with him.......

Yesterday he was riding a trike outside on the playground when he completely ran over each of the five toes on my left foot. I guess it got him off balance because after he passed over my foot he tumbled off the trike. Don't worry, he was fine :)

His reponse: He turned around and yelled: HEY TEACHER!!!! YOU MADE ME FALL OFF MY BIKE!!!! Sure. Never mind that my toes got trike rash......

My coworker and I believe that he has a definite future as a defense attorney. His favorite phrase at school is "But teacher........" Can't you see him in a 3 piece suit, standing before the judge saying, "But your honor my client......"

So yes, it is a good thing that preschoolers can't sue for causing them to fall off their bikes, refusal to let them exercise (doing pull-ups on a heavy filing cabinet) not being able to practice faux-karate. Oh yeah, and he also thinks he is fluent in Spanish after watching episodes of "Go, Diego Go!" My favorite phrase he uses is "wapido" (rapido)

Of course, I suppose it's not preschoolers I should be concerned with, but rather over protective parents. But in this case, I think I'm safe, too......

Lots of Random

Lots of random blog posts following this one- many of them things I've been thinking about for awhile but never got around to blogging about.... Don't worry, most of them are short and you might even read something nice about yourself!!!!

Signs of True Friends

Here are some signs of true friends I've enjoyed lately.....

• Will still sit with you at a restaurant even after you exclaim in the middle of the order line, "I just need a minute!!!!"
• Give you a hat for a Christmas gift just like the one you lost!
• Send you texts just to let you know they are thinking of you
• Go with you to family parties even if they (technically) not a member of the family
• Let you borrow their vacuum cleaner and wait patiently for you to return it
• Share their ice cream sandwiches with you
• Brave snowy roads to go with you to a concert
• Laugh at your jokes
• Listen to your stories even when you change topics mulitple times in one sentence :)
• Leave comments on your blog (but if you don't you are still totally my friend!)
• Give you hugs even when you just saw them the day before
• Lend you ingredients when you need to make something for the next day and it's too late to go to the store
• Invite you to do stuff just because they were thinking of you
• Inspire you to be a better person
• Share pictures with you from their awesome camera
• Mention you on their blogs
• Play the role of a personal fashion consultant and in turn ask you for your opinion
• Validates your feelings so that you know you aren't alone

I love my friends!!!!!!!

It's Endearing......

I've added a few random blog posts- stuff I've been meaning to blog about for awhile but haven't actually done it. Don't worry, most of it is short!!!

And speaking of random, I was driving home with my brother last night after babysitting his kids. Due to true Litster fashion, he started to tell me something, said 3 or 4 other things, before getting back to his original point. Anyone who has heard me talk for a period of time is probably nodding their heads and (hopefully) smilling.

Ahhhh....... someone else who talks the way that I do. I loved it. It was endearing.

And speaking of random, one more thing I wanted to blog about...... The MLK Litster family dinner. It was a pizza party, I think we had close to 10 kinds of pizza- yum! My favorite was the homemade pizza from Depot. It had sausage, pepper, mushrooms and a nice thick crust! I made the dessert: vanilla wafers and a dip with cream cheese, butter, sugar and chocolate chips. Again- yum!!!! My friend Kerri was awesome enough and brave enough to join me. After dinner we played Uno, with about 10 different people playing, (Jake and Jenn were a team) and Addison reading the rule book and holding us to accountability. I won after nearly going out thrice before then. Good times!

Substitions

A few substitutions I've made in the kitchen lately......
A food processor can double as a mixer, especially for creaming butter and sugar. And......... who needs a spatula when you can use a cheese slicer?!?! Note: a cheese slicer from Savers not an expensive one from Europe......

From the Mouth of Babes

Things I've collected from small children lately- relatives and those that I work with......

From Alberto Cuevas- not his real name, but whenever we do games or songs where they their names, he always says his full name "Alberto Cuevas" I find it too darn cute to correct him!

From A: picking her up one day, she patted my chest and asked in all sincerity, "Why are so fluffy right here????" I quickly put her down and suggested she ask her Mom. Fluffy. That's a new one....

From Beck: he and his sister were playing at Grandma's house one afternoon while their Mom stopped. Beck wandered upstairs while Mom and Grace were cleaning up. Gma asked Beck if he would go help clean up, too. He said with all politeness and sincerity: "No, thanks!"

From Alberto: carrying an armful of blocks to put away on the shelf. "Help is on the way!!!!!"

From Ashley: Went with her family to the SL Symphony Family Concert Yesterday where Grandma was playing. Mom had told Ashley that there would be little girls there playing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" Ashley misunderstood and thought that she would be one of the little girls playing in the concert. Made sure to tell Mom to bring her violin. Confusion and tears ensued. Solution: Ashley gave a little concert on stage after. She gave a beautiful performance, looking up every few measures or to see who and how many people were watching her play.

From Colton: (the aforementioned child who uses gospel teachigns to justify his behavior) "I try to be good but it's just sooooo hard!" and "I wasn't trying to kick them, I was just trying to get away" and "I wasn't yelling. I was just talking loud!"

In Love..... With a Food Dehydrator

As previously mentioned, I recieved a food dehydrator for Christmas. And I absolutely love it!!! I love that it preserves fruit and veggies. I love that it is easy to clean. But most importantly...... I love that it is easy to use!!!! I just wash, dry, cut the fruit, put it on the trays, put the lid on, plug it in and let it go!!!!

Of course, there are a couple of catches: You have to have enough food to dehydrate or it kind of defeats the purpose because the pieces get smaller when they get dried. And.... I have to plan out time to dehydrate, (ie- be home in time to turn it off so that it doesn't get too dry......)

Still, I love it. So far I've done apples, apricots and tomatoes. Next up: bananas!!!!
I just don't see "canning" in my future, but I see lots of dehydrating!

I've Always Wondered.....

I LOVE the show, "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" Seriously, I do. Each week the story seems to get better than the week before. But I've always wondered something...... How do they manage to build such a large house/yard on what may have previously been very small property???
Do they buy existing/neighboring properties and tear them down? Is having a big property a requirement for the show in the first place? Do they build up really high to compensate?
Does anyone know the answer to this? Or want to venture a guess????

More Holiday Mems....

Here are more holiday mems for you blog reading pleasure......

• Playing the Wii. Dad gave Mom the entire Wii package and we had a lot of fun playing and a lot of time playing it! I'm best at bowling, Ok at baseball, stink at tennis but I'm OK with that...... Plus, it was a lot of fun to create our own "Mii"
• Speaking of the Wii, Carter was very entertaining to watch bowl. He has a very distinctive style. Wind the arm up several times, like pitching baseball, jump and down and back and forth before letting go..... But his style totally works! The ball gets just enough of a curve... My favorite Carter Wii moment was on New Years Eve, when all the adults were upstairs and I ran downstairs to get something and saw him playing tennis. One human, two players, one remote for each hand.... How anyone managed to serve the ball is a mystery to me...
• Actually sitting down with M and D and watching the entire "It's a Wonderful Life" on tv. Usually one of more of us is busy doing something and/or, I fall asleep :)
• Santa brought me a head massager this year. Ahhhhh...... It's basically built like a wire whisk without ends attached. We took turns passing it around, we tried on Sara's hair, but couldn't get it through her hair. Grace thought it would be fun to plop it on people head's her Dad's included, like a hat, clap her hands and say, "Oh, SO cute!!!!"
• Other fun moments: watching Mr Bean's Christmas (we're big fans of Mr Bean)my neices introduced me to "Black Knight" but I was too sleepy to stay engaged in it. Sorry, girls! Ashley wearing a matching outfit, Grace wearing her "swim shirt" over her clothes, Wickman trying to get Uncle Jim's swedish fish
• It was a culinary themed Christmas for me, with gifts such as food dehyhdrator, crockpot, Biggest Loser Cookbook, from M and D, worldwide ward cookbook from Ang and Dave. Gave the Susan Boyle Cd and real simple magazine subscription to Cristine and Shawn. All of the siblings got 2 books from Mom and Dad: the peacegiver (LOVE that book) and Joseph Smith Papers, volume 1.

• Christmas Eve breakfast with Marchelle. I love our monthly breakfasts!!!! We ate at Jason't Deli, shared a breakfast pizza, omelet and fruit. Exchanged gifts: a journal (with personality) for me and a Macey's grocery store gift card for Marchelle. Went clothes shopping for gifts for her Mom
• Watching BYU basketball, esp the game where Jimmer Fredette scored a record 49 pts vs AZ!!!!!
• Sleeping, napping, more sleeping.........
• Time with my friend Taresa, who moved to Midvale from BYU I to do her student teaching. We played the Wii, went for a walk, watched movies (Holiday Inn and IQ) and visited- the most fun of all!!!!
• New Years Eve with M and D and the Neerings. We played the Wii, watched the ball drop and had melted chocolate chips with marshmallows, apples, and pretzel sticks. And maybe more things that I forgot...... Oh yeah, and hot chocolate was involved, too..... Made dinner with my new crockpot and ward cookbook, made a chicken pot pie-type dish, except there was no pie crust.......
• Reading lots of good books from the library, including the 700+ pg "The Undaunted" (Lund) "Before the Dawn" (Hughes) "On the Street where you Live," (Higgins-Clark) and "Cream Puff Murder" (Fluke)

Happy Holidays, All!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holiday Mems...... Part 1

So, though, technically the "Holidays" have passed, the happiness of it all is still fresh in my mind and I wanted to make sure I recorded the memories. PLUS I have really missed updating! Granted, some of these you "had to be there for" but I hope you enjoy regardless!
Oh, and by Holiday's I mean "anytime in December" and the events are not necessarily in chronological order!!!! Again, it's long. Don't say I didnt' warn you......

• Mom and Dad's Nativity Open House for the neighborhood- I lost track of how many navities my mom has.... over 100? The majority of the nativities came from the Philippines (Christmas is HUGE there) but they also come from Germany, Israel, New Mexico, homemade, and Italy. There's also a collection of specially made Santas from place's anyone in the family has lived, served a mission, or where our ancestors hail from: the Santa's include: Norway, Denmark, Chile, Argentina, USA, Taiwan, Peru and Ecaudor. Plus the refreshements were fabulous: Costco muffins, cheese and crackers, Mom's special wassail, chocolate truffles, etc. MMMMMMMM..............
• 25th Annual Midvale's Handel Messiah: Mom directed, David and Deborah both sang solos, Dad, Aunt Suzan and I sang in the choir, David, Mom, Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Joe played in the orchestra. I really felt the message and spirit of the Messiah and the life of the Savior sink into me, especially singing about how he was despised and rejected of men and yet took all of our sins upon him. It was beautiful..... And, as has become tradition, Hot chocolate and toast with Mom and Dad and Depot at M & D's that night
• BYU football Las Vegas Bowl game: I really get into BYU football games. When they are playing well, anyway. When they're losing, not so much....... Thankfully, this time they were playing well early on so me and my stomach were completely relaxed and I didn't even have to wait until halftime to eat!!!! The guest of honor was 3 week old niece, Coralea Elizabeth Litster, baby sister to 3 older brothers. She is absolutely precious with lots of dark hair- but I didn't hold her too much because I tend to yell, loudly and a lot, during games and I didn't want to scare her..... Another highlight was seeing 14 month old Lexi walking and signing things like "please, more, and cracker" The best part, besides a dominating 44-20 over a PAC-10 team???? Having all the family together :)
• Another highlight from the bowl game- sending my nephews into hysterics! During halftime my sister and husband had to deliver neighbor gifts, they took Ashley, I told them I'd keep an eye on Carter. I went downstairs to the family room and found about 8 of my nephews ages 7-12 gathered in a circle on the couches, being led by Bennett, talking about...... something. I teasingly asked Carter if he was behaving himself, Bennett asked, with a glint in his eye..... what if he's not? To which I said, "Then I'll have to hug him and kiss him!" I then proceeded to go around the circle trying to hug and kiss each boy. Jacob and Errol were receptive, but the rest of them covered themselves, shrieking and curling into balls- but we were all laughing, too!
• Attending cousin Brent Morley's fabulous Jazz Christmas concert, "Not Forgotten Carols" Loved the music, loved see so many family there, loved it all!

• An AWESOME trip to Moab with my dear friend Kerri. She totally rocks! And we packed a LOT into a 2 day, 1 night trip. We went to the Moab temple, saw the sights at Canyonlands and met a straightfaced ranger who suggested we "drive down the road.....and look at the sights" , ate at an "off the beaten path" diner with good but very interesting clientle, got amazing ice cream cones and new Moab hoodies, saw tons of arches: double arch, shoe arch, delicate arch, the 3 gossips, survived a serious spray of salt from a snow plow on the road home. Seriously, I don't think more fun could have happened!
• AND..... I ran in the the Moab 10k and beat my previous best my 10 minutes!!!! My new best is 1 HOUR, 32 SECONDS! For real! It was freezing, though, somewhere in the 20's, I think.... Even though I layered it took me until about mile 3 to feel like my toes and fingers were not being pinched by lobster claws- how's that for a vivid description??? Kerri supported me and met me and the finish line- that's the kind of amazing friend she is!
• Christmas Eve Breakfast with Marchelle- we have a tradition of going out to breakfast together once a month to catch up. We take turns choosing the restaurants. So far we've been to Kneaders, Ihop, Village Inn, Denny's, Belgian Waffle, and this time, Jason's Deli. We usually get two breakfast entrees and share/split. I loved going out and catching up with her, love that she listens to me and laughs at my jokes, love her insights into the Gospel and Life. And, not to be sappy but.... everytime we do this, I like to think that Grandpa and Grandma Morley are watching and that they are happy we are together. Grandpa always seemed to be the happiest when his family was together. And..... got a fabulous new journal from Marchelle, she has such a knack for picking out one that I'll like- one with "style".

The end for now.... stay tuned for part 2!!!!