Oakland A’s Game

09 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by The Piquant Storyteller in Family, Video

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The best first grade field trip is to the Oakland A’s game. The kids have to fulfill a reading contract in order to earn a free ticket to the game. Parents have to purchase their tickets in advance. While it’s only $6 I think paying early gives the parents a lot of incentive to help their child earn a ticket.

Gavin had no problem earning his ticket. He’s a little bookworm. Parker had to be convinced on several occasions to do the extra reading required. The contract asks for four extra hours of reading on top of required homework reading. Two book reports are also required. The kids get a month, maybe a little more than a month, to complete the contract.

Parker is a do it himself kind of guy. His first book report looked like a first grader did it without any help! It’s so hard for me to be his mom sometimes. I have to bite my tongue a lot. At the end of the day I am actually very impressed with Parker’s desire to do things on his own. It’s a good lesson for him to learn early in life.

The second book report had to be a video. Partly because Heath and I like to show off our videography skills and partly because it’s fun. Mostly we decided Parker had to have a video because we did that for Gavin. The truth is that Gavin has done as many school videos as he has because it’s a creative way for him to share his knowledge without the added pressure of doing it in front of a group. Maybe I baby him too much though.

It made perfect sense to do a video of Gavin interviewing “Dr. Seuss” in a biography book report. Gavin likes those types of books. Parker is more of a fictional reader. So his video report was a little more tricky. We landed on the idea of Parker promoting his book Reading Rainbow style. I think it turned out really cute. I have to say, I love first grade. It’s so fun to come up with creative approaches to the various assignments that perfectly suit each kid’s personality.

Parker and Claire at the game. Here’s what Parker had to say about his fun field trip:

“I had a lot of candy! I had a lot of junk food too! Before we went we had a king sized Kit Kats. Before we got to the stadium we had Twix. For lunch we had a hot dog. Before the hot dog we had some root beer with it. I had some cotton candy. After the game I had some Twix. Three of them. Then when we got home we had some ice cream sandwiches. And they were good! And that’s it.

It was fun and I got to sit by Claire. The game is still going on because it’s on TV. We’re watching it. It was funny because for a long time it was 0 vs. 0. The other team scored first.”

Heath decided to leave the game early since he and Parker were getting tired. They followed us down the street after I had picked up Gavin from school. That was a fun surprise.

This is how we found Parker. He was snoring. I am not surprised. He has always gotten tired in the afternoon. If he’s had an extra fun day he crashes like this. Otherwise he’s just grouchy. Check out the licorice on the seatbelt strap.

Apparently Heath took pictures of Parker asleep with it in his mouth! Such a sweet little guy!

Busted by the Easter Bunny

09 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by The Piquant Storyteller in Family, Video

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family fun, video

It’s one thing for Mom and Dad to nag about cleaning up the house but the Easter Bunny? I wouldn’t have believed it unless I saw it.

The Easter Bunny came to our house and left a note asking the kids to clean up the house or he wouldn’t hide eggs. Crazy! I thought it was nice that he left the kids some chocolate in their baskets along with church books.

My favorite Easter tradition is that the kids get fun books to read in Sacrament Meeting. Parker was thrilled with the chapter books he got. He is becoming quite the little reader so I’m not surprised that’s what the Easter Bunny brought.

When we came home from church there were colorful plastic eggs full of chocolate all over. Gwen turned into a chocolate addict. She ate all the chocolate she found and then started demanding her brothers share with her! Later, I kid you not, she was frantically screeching that she couldn’t find the chocolate Gavin gave her! It had fallen off the couch cushion and onto the floor. I spotted it hours later. As soon as Gwen saw it she shoved it right in her mouth with a relieved smile on her face. Luckily it hadn’t melted. It’s not like we have a rule about only eating at the table!

Gavin looks way too grown up in this picture. All except the crooked tie. Parker has been begging for a tie to wear to church for months. So we found him a nice shirt and tie combo with a new pair of pants. He looked so nice while the tie was on. It didn’t stay on much though. Gwen’s dress is very pretty. I had to laugh when I noticed another girl wearing the same dress. The girl is 9 years old and the dresses are probably the same size! I received many compliments on my new dress. Most of them came from people who had no idea I made it so that made me feel good. I didn’t tell them either. Just accepted the compliment.

I am loving this hairstyle on Gwen. It’s a side French braid with the rest of the braid wrapped into a bun on the side of her head. So cute. So Gwen.

The other night I had a strange dream that it was April and I hadn’t taken down the Christmas decorations yet. In my dream I was shocked that I could have forgotten something like that, especially since I had invited all those little girls to Gwen’s birthday party. When I woke up and the fog of sleep dissipated I realized how silly that dream was. Christmas decorations are the only ones I will leave up past Christmas. They come down on New Year’s Day. Today I cleaned up all the chocolate foil wrappers. I found homes for all of Gwen’s Easter erasers. The plastic eggs are put away along with the minimal Easter decorations I have. Ahh . . . it’s a beautiful thing.

Today is supposed to be the warmest day this week. We made sure to enjoy the beautiful weather by playing at the park. The boys rode their scooters while Gwen rode her bike. I walked as fast as I could and promptly got shin splints so that was fun. Luckily there are a couple playgrounds in that park so I could rest my aching legs while the kids played. I love Spring Break.

Hands Free Toilet Cleaning

26 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by The Piquant Storyteller in Piquant, Video

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piquant, video

Let’s face it, cleaning bathrooms is gross. Not cleaning bathrooms is even more gross so something must be done. A quick walk down the cleaning aisle of your favorite retailer shows a varied display of bathroom cleaning products. I’m not sure it really matters which brand you choose so long as you introduce something to the germs in your bathroom periodically.

Manufacturers have come up with many different ad campaigns trying to convince you that their product saves you time in the bathroom or keeps you from actually having to be involved with cleaning your bathroom. Kaboom claims to get rid of hard water spots quickly and easily. My experience with this product is that my hard water spots have been military trained. The industrial strength of my hard water spots see Kaboom coming a mile away and collapse in a heap laughing.

Scrubbing Bubbles is my weapon of choice though I have no real loyalty to the product. It works reasonably well and smells good. Works for me! I like that their slogan is: We work hard so you don’t have to. It’s a promise that looks good on paper. I still spend an hour between the two “guest” bathrooms that my kids strategize disgusting techniques for hours to mess up seconds after I finish cleaning. The master bathroom takes at least an hour to clean as well. Regardless of cleaning day frequency. It would be nice if a product could make good on their promise and actually do most of the torturous work for me.

This has got to be my favorite commercial of all time. On the surface it seems like a great idea right? Hands free toilet cleaning! What could be better? I love the guy in this commercial. He is so proud of himself for stepping on that little pedal that releases the smell of flowers in a meadow. You can almost see the relief on his face as he realizes his to-do list just got shorter. Mom can drop by anytime at this man’s house.

Let’s delve deeper into this concept. Did you see the rest of his bathroom? It was sparkly clean. Did you notice the toilet? It was clean enough you could eat off of it. Put back in the cupboard, straight off the showroom floor quality. That does not happen in real life.

What did you see the last time you approached your toilet armed with your arsenal of cleanliness? The inside of the toilet is yucky, of course. That’s where the majority of the germs are collected. However, the suburbs of the toilet bowl can get pretty skanky too. The question is, what cleans the outside of the toilet? I couldn’t care less that there is a product to clean the inside of the bowl hands free. The outside needs some attention too. Even if a person lives alone without small children still remembering the importance of aiming, the outside of the toilet should get dusted occasionally to maintain that twinkle.

Robots can be found in many American homes sweeping and vacuuming floors. Both chores can be done on the other end of a long handle. Even cleaning the inside of the toilet isn’t that big a deal. Toilet brushes have handles. You touch the handle not the fuzzy orb shape on the other end. Why that job needs to be sold with a promise of a hands free option is beyond me. That’s the least of my worries when it comes to sanitizing a bathroom. How about we work on something to take me out of the equation on the rest of the bathroom?

Scrubbing Bubbles squirts cleaner every morning in my shower. It’s not the most effective way to clean a shower but it does help. A Roomba can take care of any splashing on the floor. I can step on something to clean my toilet bowl for me . . . do you see where I’m going with this?

Hands free toilet cleaning! As if!

Tricked out Tradition

23 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by The Piquant Storyteller in Family, Video

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Gwen, video

Tradition in our family is the kids get a bike with training wheels on their fourth birthday. Gwen was thrilled to get her bike. I’m just thrilled she can actually ride it!

Gavin didn’t start pedaling on a bike until the middle of kindergarten. Parker was a little faster but probably still five years old before he figured it out. When we bought Gwen’s helmet I had her ride around on the boys’ shark bike. She could pedal. Hallelujah!

Also when we bought Gwen’s helmet we found the perfect bike to buy later when she wasn’t around. Only when Heath and I went to get it the selection was pretty picked over. Is President’s Day a popular bike buying day? Out of the girls choices of bikes I didn’t think Gwen would really like any of them. We had seen a Tinkerbelle bike before and I didn’t think we should do it. The thing was so blinged out with fairy this and flower that in every accessory a bike can hold. She’s spoiled and all but come on. She can have a regular bike like everyone else.

With little choice of bikes in her size that she might like Heath talked me into the Tinkerbelle bike. I’m glad we got it. It is so Gwen!

I love the cute little outfit Grandma made. The best part is that Gwen was so offended that people (read random strangers) didn’t comment on her new outfit! That girl is hysterical!

Birthday Party Week!

22 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by The Piquant Storyteller in Family, Video

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cooking, family fun, Gwen, memories, video

Gwen loved having Grandma and Grandpa come visit for her birthday. Since they left the day before her real birthday we celebrated early. We are always looking for an excuse to celebrate early. Sometimes we celebrate for days after too. This year is no exception. Not only is she having her birthday tea party on Saturday but my mom sent a present yesterday so she’ll get that soon.

Monday was the big family celebration.

Gwen wanted a chocolate mousse pie for her birthday. Nobody planted the idea in her mind. She just announced that’s what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday. With Heath and Grandpa being so busy outside, Grandma made the chocolate mousse.

Heath couldn’t find any Oreo crumbs so he bought lots of peanut butter Oreos for the crust. The kids took out all the peanut butter filling so the cookies could be crushed in the food processor (thanks to my mom for that Christmas gift!). The filling was put in a little bowl and we all would casually walk by sneaking circles of filling. The crust had a unique flavor since you could kind of taste the peanut butter a little. It was very yummy.

Chocolate mousse takes every cooking/baking dish in the house to make. There is always lots of leftover whipped cream to sample. Chocolate mousse is very rich. Heath believes it caused his gout flare up so he wanted it out of the house as soon as possible. There was too much for seven people anyway so we invited our neighbors over to celebrate with us.

For dinner Grandpa had made enchiladas. I was supposed to make it but somehow Grandpa took over my job. I was too busy loving my new screened in porch. My mom made the best enchiladas I had ever tasted. They were so good I told everyone who asked that enchiladas were my favorite food. Well. I found the recipe! Grandpa and Grandma’s enchiladas took me back to the happiest moments of my childhood – eating enchiladas. So good! We have eaten out so much this last week that I don’t know if we want Gwen to pick a birthday dinner wherever she wants. I liked her observed birthday dinner!

Opening gifts is so much fun for everyone. I love how I wrapped her fluffy tights from Halo Heaven in a test strip box! The tights are so nice. She’s wearing them today. I am so impressed with the things I ordered from Halo Heaven. That’s another post though.

I made Grandpa help Gwen open this gift. I was so afraid she would break the jewelry box if she opened it herself since it fit so tightly in the box it was shipped in.

Grandma made Gwen a doll with a blanket and several outfits, including a matching outfit for Gwen. Gwen quickly named the doll Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). Aurora and Emma are best friends and enjoy playing together and sharing clothes.

I wish I was making this up!

23 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by The Piquant Storyteller in Family, I'm a Mormon, Video

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faith, Heath, music videos

My only real goal for the day was to do a blog post sometime before 8:00 pm. Looks like I’m cutting it pretty close. Instead I’ve been lazy all day.

This is the best version of this song!

It’s been a weekend around here and Heath and I make quite the pair. I gave him gout on Saturday. I wish I was making that up but evidence points to me as the culprit. Then I got the worst headache on Sunday. One of those dizzy, almost nauseating, headaches. The dents in the couch are becoming more and more pronounced. The TV is exhausted from trying to entertain all of us.

Gavin spiked a fever on Saturday and laid around all day in his pajamas. He slept really well that night and without a hint of a fever I made him go to church on Sunday! The Wicked Witch of the West returns. He was upset at first but he got over it pretty quickly. I maintained my new persona. Just ask Gwen’s Sunbeam class. I substituted on Sunday and I think I’m done with the whole giving in to the sob stories and subbing thing. I’m sorry those kids have had three different teachers in three weeks, but I think they would prefer I never take on the role of their teacher again. I think I shouldn’t fill in for anyone for awhile. I’m officially burned out.

On Saturday I took Gwen to a birthday party. It was fun and she loved it. It was at Color Me Mine, a place where you can buy and paint ceramics in the store. I dropped a ceramic cupcake trying to help my friend, the hostess, take items to the table for the kids to choose from. Yeah, it broke. I wish I could say differently. I felt horrible. Luckily the store didn’t charge for it.

Extra gravity followed me and I spilled cereal crumbs all over the floor trying to cut out a stupid box tops for education label. I was tired, socially spent, and not looking forward to subbing a class full of 3 year olds who are so fresh from the toys and snacks of Nursery. I told Heath I wanted my comfort food. Because he loves me a little too much . . . some tough love may have been a better solution . . . he brought home Carl’s Jr.

He ate a huge Big Carl. Lots of red meat! Mmmm. A couple hours later his right big toe hurt. Really bad. Like he had broken it or sprained it hurt. Only he hadn’t. It was swollen and he could barely walk.

He couldn’t sleep that night. I could. Apparently I slept through his tossing and turning and his getting up to eat so he could take Ibuprofen. At some point I opened my eyes and realized he was on his tablet. He said he was checking on Web MD. I told him to be careful with that site. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Web MD is a great site. You type in your symptoms and a mile long list of possible diagnoses links show up. Your symptoms can result in anything from menstrual cramps to worst case scenario cancer that may kill you tomorrow. When Heath typed in his symptoms only five results came up. They all centered around gout.

This was more or less confirmed over the phone by an on call doctor Sunday morning. The doctor mercifully called in a prescription for super sonic Ibuprofen. Only our local Kaiser pharmacy is closed on Sunday so the doctor called it into our grocery store pharmacy we used to go to. Heath hobbled in there to be told they don’t take our insurance. He grabbed the woman by the pharmacy coat lapels and said, “I don’t care! I will pay whatever the drugs cost!” Ok, that’s not true. He very calmly asked how much it would cost to pay out of pocket. She did her magic on the computer putting in weird codes and discounts and charged Heath $10 for the pills.

I had the worst headache yesterday that somehow didn’t go away today. I considered giving into my bulimic tendencies but soon thought better of it. Instead I told Heath we better get him in to the lab for his blood work. The results are interesting. His uric acid is on the high side of normal but not out of range. Hm.

Heath says my headache is me being jealous of him. He could be right! It’s always all about me! He told me earlier today, when his foot was feeling much better, that he was afraid this was just a minor flare up. What will happen if it really hurts? He wondered if he will cry. Then he told me I would try to outdo him again by dying or something and he would curse himself for not having more insurance on me! I sure wish I was making that up. He makes me laugh! I’m glad I’m not making that up. Although I wish I had made up the whole dramatic weekend.

Anyway, how is everyone else feeling? My head is feeling better but the lazy song is still calling my name.

Christmas Say What Video Style

26 Monday Dec 2011

Posted by The Piquant Storyteller in Family, Funny, I'm a Mormon, Video

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faith, family fun, Say What, video

This is a long post with lots of cute video to help tell the story. Settle in and enjoy.

I think most families have the tradition of opening just one present on Christmas Eve and it’s always pajamas! When I was a kid my parents would let us pick one present to open on Christmas Eve. We tried to find packages that didn’t look like they would have pajamas in them. Somehow we always picked the pajama presents. I remember one year in particular, there were lots of identical boxes in triplicate. The ones we had our eyes on were the gigantic boxes. Surely there were no pajamas in there! The pajamas were more likely to be in the smaller boxes shaped like Victorian houses.

My parents made us second guess ourselves and our choices. We stood firm on the big boxes. Miraculously they let us open them. Ha ha Mom and Dad! We got you! Except they got us. Our pajamas were buried in the boxes among tissue paper and jingle bells. Sigh for nostalgic tradition.

Heath’s mom keeps that tradition alive for her grandchildren making pajamas every year. This year she took on the challenge of making matching pajamas for everyone. Grandkids, kids, spouses. It was quite the challenge for her to find something that would please everyone from a 3 year old granddaughter to a 15 year old grandson. I thought she did a great job! The pajamas are super comfy and it was fun to get something on Christmas Eve. I haven’t had Christmas Eve pajamas since I was a kid.

The following video shows our kids reaction to the pajama tradition and the pajamas inside.

I did convince Gwen to wear her pajamas by telling her we would be twins. Oh the honesty of a child!

Rise and Shout the Cougars are out!

The kids were just a little excited. Gwen has been singing this song all month. I kind of wish I had gotten video of her sooner because the boys were bouncing around her in the first take. They were convinced the video would get them on AFV. *eye roll* The second take she sang in a weird voice because if her brothers say something it must be true. All of my family videos are funny to me but I don’t think I have a single one that is funny enough to send in to AFV. Maybe the one of Gwen walking into the fridge. That’s a good one.

Anyway, the kids were very excited. Heath reminded them of the Christmas Eve rules. No getting out of bed. They could go to the bathroom if they needed to but they had to go straight back to bed without peeking over the banister. We would get them up in the morning. If they woke up before 6:00 am they had to lay in bed and quietly wait for us. We would let them all use the bathroom but nobody could look down into the living room while we waited. We have to have a lot of rules with the open view from the upstairs hallway down to the front room.

Christmas morning I woke up somewhere around 4:30 am. I had heard a thump and I think that’s what really woke me up but of course I couldn’t get back to sleep. Our bedroom door was shut. Not sure why Heath did that since we never sleep with the door shut. It wasn’t until we opened the door ready to get kids up before we noticed.

Gwen’s light was on. She does that sometimes. She thinks she can’t sleep with it off so if she wakes up in the middle of the night she has been known to turn her light on and go back to bed. What bothered us was all the lights on downstairs. Alright, who’s guilty?

Logic says it’s Gwen. The boys wouldn’t do something like that and Gwen has been guilty before of touring the house in the middle of the night and leaving all the lights on. But it was that smirk on Parker’s face that has me wondering. I always know when he lies because his smirk gives him away. Maybe it was Gwen and Parker together. Those two are definitely partners in crime! I love that Gavin was so concerned we might suspect him. He was trying so hard to sound innocent! Gavin is straight as an arrow when it comes to being naughty and if he ever did do something naughty he would immediately admit it. Kids are awesome!

The next video shows our Christmas morning mayhem.

A sewing machine? For moi? I had no idea! (the sewing machine and Kitchenaid arrived on the same day and have sat in front of the tree ever since, in their original packages and were never wrapped!)

This girl got the most toys. The boys got lots of Legos so they built things all day. Gwen flitted around from toy to toy and had the time of her life.

The missionaries played Heroica with the boys. I love our missionaries! They are really great guys.

While one elder was Skyping the other one made words out of the bananagrams that were sitting on the table in the office. Parker uses the bananagrams to study his spelling words.

My brother and his family gave us Marble Run from Mindware games. We played with it all morning. This was one of my favorite toys as a kid. Heath led a sheltered life and never had anything like it. He was the head engineer this morning.

Yep, it’s been a fun weekend. I hope everyone else had a great Christmas too.

The Heritage Project

20 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by The Piquant Storyteller in Family, Video

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cooking, family fun, Gwen, Parker, video

Parker’s class has been celebrating heritage in social studies. The students have talked a lot about then and now and what some of those differences are. This month they have made it more personal for each student.

The students were asked to decorate a paper doll. One side should look like an ancestor or family member then. Or they could choose to decorate it in traditional clothes of their heritage. The other side was supposed to look like the student.

I meant to get a picture of the other side but I never got around to it. Parker’s doll is the yellow and blue one dressed in traditional Swedish clothing. The other side has blue jeans and an orange t-shirt that I cut up from real clothing. It’s cute. Some kids put a picture of their faces on the doll. Most just drew their faces. The dolls were pretty cool.

Then the kids were supposed to interview a family member over 55. Parker Skyped with Grandma. Parker was really cute and very professional in the interview. I was impressed with how he reworded the questions and had a real conversation with Grandma. Mrs. M said that the kids could make a video of the interview so Heath found an app to record the conversation. He put the video together really quickly that night and it turned out great. The app gave us the ability to choose who was on screen and for how long. It was very cool.

Of course I have edited the beginning of this a lot. It is a public blog after all!

This whole heritage project culminated in a first grade feast. I think I have mentioned in the past that each grade or classroom has a multicultural feast right before Christmas. It’s usually part of the Christmas party. Parker’s class had the feast today. The kids were assigned either a main dish, side dish, or dessert based on their classroom number. We got dessert again.

The students were supposed to bring a dish from their heritage or they could bring a family favorite. We don’t do a lot of desserts in our house. Sad but true. We have a lot of ice cream and that was Parker’s suggestion. But ice cream is kind of hard to share in a school setting. I made reindeer candy canes for Gavin and maybe 5 candy canes into it I started wishing I had never agreed to to do it! So yeah, that was out of the question. We couldn’t really think of any good desserts that were Swedish or German. At least not any we had ever eaten! So we decided on chocolate mousse pie. It’s Franco-American. I have French in me. And a lot of other European blood. We’re all mutts around here!

The chocolate mousse pie is rich, delicious, fattening, and chocolate! You can’t go wrong with chocolate! We wanted to make our Nutter-butter crust chocolate pie but with all the allergies people were asked not to do anything with peanut butter. Chocolate mousse pie was a great alternative.

This is how we made it to share with the class. Normally it’s made in a spring form pan but we thought tartlets would be easier.

Some of them were a lot more amoeba shaped than others! The chocolate is like pudding. It sets up in the fridge.

This is what it takes to make chocolate mousse pie. Oreo cookie crumbs mixed in butter to make the crust. Melted chocolate mixed with en egg white cream mixture and whipped cream. Lots of cream and chocolate. I told you it was rich and fattening! By the way, I made the whipped cream from scratch all by myself. That’s right! You see that last picture? I did that.

Then you make more whipped cream to pipe onto the top when you’re ready to serve it.

Delicious decadence.

The party was fun. I took tons of pictures to put on the class Shutterfly account.

Gwen was excited that there was plenty of food. I told her she was coming with me to the party (despite all the school rules against siblings) but I wasn’t going to let her have any food unless I knew all the students had enough first.

There are 25 kids in the class and we made 30 chocolate mousse tartlets. I told Gwen she couldn’t have any at school. She had the leftover chocolate at home. It was in a big ice cream sundae glass. She ate maybe 1/4 of it before she was too full. I told her to lick the spoon and she wouldn’t. She was too full. I told you it’s rich. This morning she kept saying she wanted to eat her feast. I finally figured out that she meant the chocolate. Mrs. M called it a feast so Gwen picked up that word and named the dessert feast I guess. Unfortunately, Heath and I had finished it last night when we made the whipped topping. So Gwen was pretty excited to get some at school. There were six tartlets left over. Mrs. M took three for her family and we brought three home.

Now that my schedule is a little more free maybe I will do my tradition post tomorrow. What’s your heritage and what traditions does your family have?

Express Yourself

29 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by The Piquant Storyteller in Family, Video

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Gavin, Gwen, Parker, Say What, video

If one “heh bund” is good, all of them must be better!

You too could express yourself this way. I spent $1 for seven headbands. A dollar! I couldn’t care less if they get lost or stretched out or anything. They were an impulse buy for a dollar!

These special Thanksgiving pies the boys have made in first grade are so fun. This was the only pie we had for our personal Thanksgiving on Black Friday. Parker, I too am thankful for TV. I’m also thankful it’s always on. Even more thankful that it shows up in pictures and video when it’s too hard to crop it out!

Like mother like son.

How are you expressing yourself today?

Maybe love really is all you need

26 Wednesday Oct 2011

Posted by The Piquant Storyteller in Piquant, Video

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music videos, piquant

The greatest thing you will ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

Love is a powerful emotion that can quite literally change everything. To love another involves great risk and even greater rewards. Love requires vulnerability. To hold back is not true love. Letting go of all inhibitions and worry of what others may think is like jumping off a cliff. The hope is there’s a net but with eyes shut tight you jump anyway. Then you discover you have wings to fly.

How much better off would the world be if more people were willing to love? Rather than be angry over a perceived offense, how would things change if we considered the other side of the story?

The landlord who conveniently forgets promises may be struggling with money.
A flaky friend may be dealing with more than they can handle.
We don’t always know what lies beneath the surface.

A woman had arachnophobia. She decided to face her fears by making herself and her daughter attend a class where they would handle live tarantulas. The daughter was able to touch the spiders with no problem. The woman was still too afraid. But the knowledge she gained from the class changed her perspective completely. As she went hiking up Mt. Diablo in California, she was obsessed with protecting the tarantulas. She knew how fragile they were and felt love for them and their well being.

A man suffered a traumatic brain injury leaving his mental capacities too variable to work. On the good days he worried so much about the family finances knowing he could no longer provide. One day he decided to hold a yard sale. It was one way he could do something to help his family. A neighbor called and yelled at the man for all the stuff on his lawn. He irately spat out his pompous attitude about how the furniture on the lawn decreased the value of the neighborhood. The man’s wife could hear the neighbor from across the room screaming through the phone at her husband.

The man patiently waited for the tirade to end. He then said it used to be that people cared about each other. And if a man suddenly had all his possessions on his lawn the neighbors would ask what they could do to help. After a stunned silence the neighbor apologized.

Charity is not an item crossed off a to do list. Love is not obligatory gifts. True love is unconditional. It lifts and inspires. It is giving the benefit of the doubt and connecting with others on a deeper level. It builds confidence and tears down walls. Love is safety. Love is choice and accountability for actions. Love is life changing.

The greatest thing you will ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
~Toulouse-Lautrec
Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge 2001

Based on a True Story

Category Archives: Video

Oakland A’s Game

Busted by the Easter Bunny

Hands Free Toilet Cleaning

Tricked out Tradition

Birthday Party Week!

I wish I was making this up!

Christmas Say What Video Style

The Heritage Project

Express Yourself

Maybe love really is all you need

Follow “Based on a True Story”