A long time ago, in a galaxy far away . . .

Introducing the winners of the 1st annual

ML Stake Harvest Carnival costume contest:

From left to right: Padme Amidala, Bobba Fett,

Blue Clone Trooper (aka Commander Kade), & Jango Fett

Jango wanted an exact clone replica for himself, and he got close,

but, little Boba seems to look a tiny bit like . . . Padme?!?

It seems that Jango Fett got a bit mixed up about his orders --

He was sent to stop Padme's heart, not win it!

Little Boba seems to be a budding photographer! Nice job, Jordan!

Now that's an alien life form that we had never before encountered. The boys were very excited to see their friend Aria and share some late night sugar cookies and hot cocoa.

In keeping with our theme, our pumpkin carvings included a Tie-fighter and the Rebel Insignia.

"Don't move Jedi!!"

Our Stake is having a Halloween Carnival at the Church tonight and it is almost time to go. The boys are suited up and waiting for my transformation from Mom to Padme Amidalla. Do you believe in miracles? Brett found some pretty cool Star Wars costumes at an online store and the boys are more than ready to be in character for the evening. We have plenty of movie scenes and lines in the bank to make our charade believable.

Kade's Lingo

While I was teaching piano lessons the other day, Kade was trying to help himself in the bathroom. Sometimes he nearly camps out in there, so I wasn't alerted that there might be a problem after his short 3 or 4 minute visit. Suddenly, however, I hear the toilet flush and he says, "Mooooooom?!?!" and I run in to see that the toliet had way to much paper in it and the water level was slowly rising. I shut off the valve, run for the plunger, and fix it in a jiffy. Kade watches the whole process with fascination and then asks, "Why did you have to get the flood-a-ma-jigger?" Maybe this should be the name of the household tool known as a plunger to most of us. It sort of makes sense, doesn't it?

"K" is for Kade

Today I was able to get Kade excited about learning to write his own name. It has taken some time at pre-school to understand the need to write your name on things. He has been accustomed, up to this point, to knowing that papers and books are his if they don't have a name written on them because his brother autographs all of his work. Kade was quite pleased with himself when he was able to write a recognizable "K" after only a few attempts.
I've posted a sampling of his work!! Nice job, Tatoes, I'm proud of you. We have a date to practice the letter "A" tomorrow!

Favorite Products

I thought that I'd follow my cousin's lead and share the inside scoop on some of my favorite time-saving products. I like things to be quick, efficient, and clean, so these things are musts around my house:

My Swiffer-Sweeper Vac is something that I pull out everyday to clean up after snacks and meals, a laundered Kleenex, etc. Had they put a handle on a dustbuster, maybe they wouldn't have become such a thing of the past.

I don't know what I would do without my Quickie brand "shmop." There are a lot of hard floors in my house, so I love to use this wet or dry to keep things dust free and shiny bright! I can even angle it to wipe mopboards and have used it right on my walls so that I don't need a stool. I find it much more economical and versatile than a Swiffer wet jet or anything else that is as fast and convenient. The microfiber covers are only a few dollars and are machine washable.

This is truly the most fool-proof stain spray out there. I occasionally rely on a little 409 still for grease stains, but I use this on everything else and never have anything come out with a stain. It was especially my favorite during our baby/diaper blow-out days.

I am basically a "from-scratch" kind of person, but this is where I make an exception. This is just plain yummy and only requires an egg and a little bit of water. I've tried similar things without a box and just couldn't figure out why I spent so much time. I could eat this for dessert every time. You all must try it!!

Keeping life real

All of you know how Kade is always entertaining us with his absolutely hilarious comments and observations. Here is one that has kept us laughing the last couple of days. We were sitting in church where one of my counselors in my Primary presidency was sitting directly behind us cleaning her glasses when Kade said, "Mom, Sister Jaderholm took off her glasses and I saw her real face!" Even Sister Jaderholm is still laughing. I'm grateful for my funny guy.

Our Very Active Primary Activity

Yesterday was the first Primary activity we had in our ward since my term as Primary President began. We had a huge turnout -- about 68 kids were there. We were able to keep them interested and reined in for the first 50 minutes or so, but the last 20 - 25 minutes we lost them. We were playing a game and having snacks and they got crazy. They had some serious pent-up energy after a long day of school. I quote the recent commercial when I say, "No energy crisis here!!" When all the children were safely home with their parents and we were finished cleaning up, I wondered if I'd ever recover. My nerves are not man enough for supervising 68 kids! Brett came home to me sprawled out in my recliner with a very forlorn look. It isn't normal for me to be vegging when he walks in the door -- I very rarely sit down at all. He hauled us out the door to do takeout for dinner because he could tell I was all used up for that day! Wow! I'm glad the kids had fun, but I'm more glad that these things only come around 4 times per year.

Remembrances

October 15th has been proclaimed by the United States Congress as 'National Stillbirth and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.' Although I don't need a declared occasion to remember my two precious little girls, it is sweet to think of the sacred moments when they touched my life. Helen Keller once said something that has become a bit of a motto for me:

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen

or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."

In loving memory:

Kamryn Fayth Pack -- July 6th, 2002

Zoe Lynn Pack -- April 6th, 2008

Quirk Tag

Quirk Tag:

I was tagged by my friend Kim.

The Rules:

• Link the person(s) who tagged you.

• Mention the rules on your blog.

• Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.

• Tag some fellow bloggers by linking them.

• Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged!



1. I have a really hard time with long fingernails -- they just seem like a bacteria fest!! (You won't ever catch me with them! Picture wearing claws during a diaper change! Eeeeeww!)

2. I can't let my hair just hang as it is. I have to make a major rat's nest out of it and then hairspray it until it's nearly immovable.

3. I can not handle anyone spitting into my kitchen sink. You'd be surprised at how many times in my life I have had to confront this issue (and it only took once for my husband to learn!) You can try to argue that spit makes its way in there when I'm rinsing and washing dishes, but I'm not bending on this one. Yuck!

4. I take my own cleaning supplies with me on trips so I can sanitize a few things while we settle into a hotel room.

5. I absolutely hate and can hardly handle pee -- pee in pants, pee on toilet seats, pee on sheets, pee on my bathroom floor, etc. My family just knows that when pee is involved, I am trying really hard not to lose it completely.

6. The phrase that I find myself saying the very most is, "Don't touch that," and this isn't because my children get into things they shouldn't. I have a bit of a germ issue. I try my hardest not to pass this onto my children, but nobody's perfect. Kade always asks me if public surfaces have "something yucky on there?" and has been quoted saying things like, "That guy just got his germs all over me!"


I tag Becky, Arien, Angela, Aimee, and Stacy.

"E" is for . . .

Kade's pre school curriculum is centered around a letter of the alphabet each week. Our potato "digger" expedition last week was in honor of the letter "D" so now we've moved on to "E". This is the cute little elephant guy that I picked up from school yesterday. I'm a little partial, but I think he is adorable!!

Against all principles

There are times that I kick myself when I have to let a Kodak moment go by because I am not prepared with a camera in hand. Tonight was one of those times. Brett's employer rented the entire bowling alley for a work party tonight, so we took the boys to bowl a couple of games and eat some greasy food (actually, the food on the menu at the bowling alley is among some of the better available in our town. How sad!!) A nice little family of a mom and three little girls was bowling next to us during our first game. They called it an early night and cleared out after that first hour, so another group decided to take their lane. Because the waitresses were really busy keeping up with so many full lanes of people, the man in the next party decided to clear off the table himself so that they could get bowling. The astonishing part was that the table was not the only thing he cleared off! Brett and I couldn't believe our eyes or hold our stomachs as we realized that he was stuffing his face with the food left on the plates and in the baskets of the previous bowling party!!! While hovering near the trash can, enjoying his delicious find, he kept looking around as if he was wondering whether he was going unnoticed. Well, I've got news for you - Mr. ABC food stuffing bulimia man - we noticed! If only I'd been able to sneak a photo. I'm quite certain that without photo proof, I will wake in the morning thinking that this was surely just a bad dream and not something that would actually happen - especially at a party for people that work at a HEALTH CARE FACILITY! Who is letting that man care for his health?

Digging potatoes with 'Tatoes'

Yesterday I accompanied Kade's pre-school group on a field trip to the potato farm. He was super excited, and so was I, until we woke to horrific winds. If you have little experience with potato farming, I should explain that potatoes are planted in soil that has many of the same characteristics as baby powder. So, we learned all about the potato harvesting process while standing in a foggy haze of dirt. Some of the kids wouldn't get out of the cars and others were crying, but Kade was happy as ever. In spite of the mist of darkness, we were able to witness the piler and the digger in action. The kids couldn't believe how many potatoes were in the cellar and seemed bewildered by the fact that the huge cellar we were standing in would be completely full by Saturday. The highlights of the trip were getting to ride in the tractor that pulls the potato digger (because the driver was the most patient man on the planet and let the kids take turns getting their fill of the tractor horn) and digging our own potatoes with little shovels. When we got home, we had dirt on and in every part of ourselves. Our bathtub was a sight to behold when we were all clean for bedtime! Kade has still had black gunk in the corners of his eyes today! The worst

part of clean-up duty however, was getting our van back to drivable condition. Every time we opened a door at the farm to get the kids in, the cloud of dirt just made itself at home, so, by the time we got home, it looked like we had tried to use our van to flour fried chicken. I spent over an hour today vacuuming and wiping down every surface of the interior and then getting it to "ladies day" at the car wash. Now all we have left to do is make Kade a batch of homemade french fries with the potatoes that he brought home. He may not be an Idahoan like the rest of us, but I guess it's fitting after all that we've always called him 'Tatoes.'

Look-a-Like Meter

Although this little on-line gadget was fun to mess around with, I'm not sure that it can be used to settle any disputes. The first few times we tried it, the results came back pretty close to the same, but we did get big variation with Jordan eventually. I guess Jordan looks less like Brett when he has facial hair.

Pack Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology - Family history sites

Pack Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

Pack Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free genealogy - Family name history

Lots of laughs!

Our family really enjoyed a quiet weekend at home the last few days. It was a great break from the regular mayhem of Sunday with the usual Primary and church agendas. We were grateful for comfy clothes and comfort food. General Conference was really great. My favorite part was when Elder Haight talked about learning to laugh about things instead of getting upset, quarrelsome, or angry. This is something that I've already been trying to implement to get our family through rough and crazy times. It seems that a busy schedule is the breeding ground for little oopses where a laugh could be an appropriate response. But, our follies aren't the only things that keep us laughing. Our boys provide there own share of comedy. Kade gave us the giggles when, speaking about conference, he said that he likes the "amen part, 'cause that means it's over!" Jordan got us laughing when he offered his version of words of encouragement to his very constipated brother (who had taken up long-term residence in the bathroom): "Use the force, Luke!" Kade especially thought that one was funny, and we are grateful to report, the force has been with us.