Murder and Laughter

Last Friday we hosted a murder.  Both N and I were a wee bit excited about this one.  N got to wear his fedora and I got to wear my Used Car Salesgirl wig.  We ordered some Italian dinner, made some salad and bread and we were ready for our guests.

The murder took place at La Sperenza, an Italian restaurant in Little Italy.  We had Frank Sinatra playing in the background.  Pepi Roni, N's twin, was gunned down in the kitchen.  We actually had blood spatters to prove it.  I love Halloween props!

The entire cast of suspects arrived!

Bo Jalais (Luke) and Angel Roni (Angela).  Bo works in the vineyard for N's character.  Notice he painted his finger tips purple.  He is totally commited to his role.  It's what we like to call method acting.

Rocco Scarfazzi (N) and Tara Misu (me).  Please note the read boa.  Apparently when you spend less than $5 on a boa, it can be known to die your wig and neck pink.  I looked totally sunburned after the night of murder.

Mamma Rosa (Melissa) and Marco Roni (Stacy).  In a very awkward twist, they had to play mother and son.  It led to some really inappropriate behavior since they are in fact husband and wife.

Even though we skipped through the CD a little quicker than we should've and revealed the murdered before the end of the game, it was a great time.  Angela made some killer tiramisu (not to be confused with me, Tara Misu). 

Thanks Melissa, Stacy, Angela and Luke for making our muder so much fun.  We can't wait until the next one.  Anyone up for disco?

We're hosting another murder

Tonight we will be hosting our second murder mystery party.  This one takes place in an Italian Kitchen.

N will be going as a vineyard owner named Rocco Scarfazzi.  He's stoked to wear his pin-striped suit and fedora.

I will be playing the role of Tara Misu, Roccos' former maid and now fiancee.  Apparently I have feminine wiles. 

And some appropriate hair.  Check out the wig I bought.

It is called the "Used Car Salesgirl Wig."  I can't even tell you how excited I am to wear this thing. 

Pictures will be coming.

Nature Scares the Living Tar Out Of Me

The summer before my freshman year of high school we moved from our house in town to a house miles outside of town.  At the time, the area we moved to consisted of a gas station, our housing development and another one up the road.  It's safe to say I've come into contact with nature more than I would like to. 

One of the first things I learned, while getting my driver's license was if you see a deer in the road, stop because that little deer is a scout and others will follow.  I cannot tell you how important that little tidbit of information has helped me over the years.

Since moving into our house, I've learned to tolerate frogs and N will go to extreme measures to find and remove snakes.  As much as I've learned, there are certain encounters with woodland creatures that you can never prepare for.

Last night Zoe and I went to my mom's house after our church's Harvest Party to show her our loot.  Plus Zoe was spending the night since today is an early day for our house.  I kissed Zoe goodbye, shut the door and walked to my car.  Mind you, it's pitch black outside.  What do I see near my car?  A mamma moose and her calf.  Honestly, I almost sharted.

Those creatures are huge.  Since a mamma was with her calf, you can't get too close because she might charge. 

There is nothing that will get your adrenaline pumping faster than seeing a 700 pound moose watching you, measuring your every move while her 400 pound calf is climbing up a tree to eat.

Unless, of course, you're driving to work on October 29th and you see that it's snowing.  I'm actually not sure which is scarier.

Yee-Haw and Howdy Partner

Tonight is our church's annual Harvest Party.  It's also the one place we take Zoe for some trick-or-treating fun since going door-to-door freaks her out.

I think our little cowgirl is using method acting to get into character for tonight's fesitivities.

Not only does she have the stance, but she also has a really great joke.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Yah
Yah Who?
Are you a cowgirl too?
She's going to be a natural at breaking the ice!

Gourd Puzzles

Last year, after the patch, Zoe wanted nothing to do with the pumpkin carving.  She was more into the big spoon I was using to scoop it out.  Until she got a little guts on her toe.  Then the entire kitchen area was dead to her.

This year she had a totally different mindset:  pumpkin seeds are her friends.  She requested that she have her painting shirt on.  In Sunday School that morning her teacher (aka Grandma) was teaching how we have junk, like pumpkin guts in us when we don't share or hit your friends.  God doesn't want us to have junk, so we have to take it out with His help.  Then you carve a cross in a pumpkin and let the light shine through.  Or something like that.  She's very clever.

Zoe was well prepared for the "junk" as she called it.  Which is reassuring that she's listening in Sunday School and not running around with a ladybug doll and screaming like she was two weeks ago.

We put on her painting shirt and got to work.  We cleaned the dirt off the pumpkins and posed a bit.

Then we decided that we really didn't want to work on the BIG pumpkins yet, just the "teensy" ones.  Since she was already dressed for painting, she thought that's what we should do.  So we did. 

Then she saw me hacking into the BIG pumpkins and wanted in on the action.  It's like buried treasure in there with all them seeds.

Then even seeds couldn't keep her attention.  She ran, got a flashlight and wanted to see the pumpkin all lit up.

It wasn't too long before she saw another opportunity...

...afterall it is just a big, 3-D puzzle waiting to be completed.

The Pumpkin Patch...Or Where We Got Lost For the Better Part of 35 Minutes

This year I decided we could grow our own pumpkins and make special memories that way.  It would be like a pumpkin patch in our backyard.  Then we hit arctic temperatures and the pumpkin vines turned black.  I'm pretty sure we lost our crop this year.

So, in what has now become a family tradition, we went on a trip to the pumpkin patch.  We've had limited success with each visit.  The first year Zoe, while in a Baby Bjorn, puked in the corn maze.  It's actually a memory we all still talk about.  Since I was the one the Baby Bjorn was strapped on to, I have a different memory.

The second year we didn't get to take D & E because of rain.  So N, Zoe and I got lost in the corn maze together.  It was also the year I had great ideas to hollow out small pumpkins to line our walk for the 7 trick-or-treaters we got.  Then I learned you need a hacksaw to get into those "teensy" pumpkins and teenagers really don't care if the walk is lined.  They care about candy.  LOTS of candy.

This year our family was complete.  The sun was shining and the rain had stopped.  Zoe still wanted to bring her umbrella after the whole Oregon Zoo Drench '09.  We apparently didn't learn our whole lesson from Oregon because we came without the umbrella.  And scarves.  It was like -30 degrees with the wind in the pumpkin patch.  We sat the girls down for some food and told them they had 10.6 seconds to find the perfect pumpkin because it was cold, our noses were running and my cheeks chap in the wind.  For good measure I said told them Santa wouldn't come this Halloween if they didn't do as we asked. 

They apparently think I'm full of lies because this is the pumpkin E found:

She can't even lift the darn thing.  Then D found this:

She couldn't lift hers either.  On one hand they did find the perfect pumpkin in less than 10.6 seconds, but it took another 20 to hoist those gourds up in the cart.

Zoe on the other hand was looking for the perfect "teensy" pumpkin.  They have a whole area just for teensy pumpkins.  I made sure they were big enough to carve or at least paint.

With all the pumpkins to be found, we dropped our loot off at the car and went back for some more Patch fun in the corn maze.  We love this particular farm because they have a huge cornmaze that weaves its way to a castle.  Plus it's called a "Safari Maze" because there are huge animals throughout.  We stopped for a family picture shortly after we started on our journey. 

Do you see how happy and hopeful we all are?  This is exactly 25 seconds before we did our first loop and about 35 seconds before we realized we'd see this particular corn before.  It was 40 seconds before both D and I thought we should use the cheater gate to the castle because we both like to be princesses more than explorers.

The whole maze leads you to a castle.  You weave through some corn, then you weave through some bushes, then through some more corn and then to the castle.  It's all very exciting because you can see that castle for almost the entire maze.  Which is also the frustrating part.

At one point we got so lost I started taking pictures of the corn so I could have some visual reference of where we were.  I also thought about what Smoky the Bear said, "hug a tree if you get lost in the woods and there is a forest fire."  Maybe that was McGruff the Crime Dog.  I'm not sure.  I knew that type of advice would come in handy during our 40 minute nature walk through multiple paths in a corn maze.

That was until we came across this beautiful creature of the Pacific Northwest farmland.

Zoe is totally in love.  She growled at this lion, wanted to pet him, name him and bring him home.  She may be the future Steve Irwin.

As I contemplated having to tell her "no" the lion couldn't come home with us, we saw it.  THEE path that led us out of the wild farmland and into a fairytale.

All our princesses took their prince to the top.  They wanted him to find the way out, through the pirate ship.  You know, these farmers don't like to discriminate.

After a few slides down the pirate ship, we said "ahoy" to the patch.

That was, after we bought some Slinkies from a local vendor.  You know, nothing says "pumpkin patch" like a Slinky.

Girls Night Out, Also Known As When You Eat Food As Big As Your Head

After the wedding it was time for more of my people.  I went to college in Salem, made some amazing friends and every 9 1/2 years we get together.

So it had been entirely too long.  I may have been a little excited and began preparation for our night out about 8 weeks in advance. 

These are two ladies I grew to love after 4 years of living in dorms and trying to write papers explaining the Holy Trinity.  Brooke and I were business majors together and Sarah was an education major we grew to love as one of our own.

We had 28 1/2 years to catch up on over dinner, so we ordered food as big as our heads and got down to business.

We chatted about life, love and how the waiter was cute until he forgot to bring Brooke her drink.  It was 5 hours of perfection. 

We all brought our cameras.  Sarah and I have been practicing how to get rid of the double chin in self portraits.  Apparently her praticing totally paid off and mine left something to be desired.

At least until I was standing up and no longer using my go-go gadget arms to get the best shot ev-ah.

Thanks girls for some great conversation, fellowship and sticking with me for the last 9 1/2 years.  It feels like no time at all has passed.  Except that you are both more amazing then I remember. 

Love ya girlies.  Can't wait for the next time.  It'll be before 9 1/2 years.  Promise!