All Kinds Of Frumpy Randomness

Oopsie. Tad oversight on the part of this here blog.

Sorry about that.

I have no excuse. Things just got craaa-zay.

And by crazy, I mean in the not-only-planning-for-Christmas-but-also-planning-a-wedding kind of craziness.

Yes, because Christmas festivities just aren't enough to have on one's mind during December, I am also helping a nephew and his fiancee plan their wedding and reception.

And crazy me, I volunteered to not only head up decorating the chapel and the reception hall, but also to make their invitations.

Did I mention they wanted an L.A. Lakers theme to the whole thing?

Or that when I first agreed to help with this wedding, it was to be later in the spring...months away. Then it got bumped back to early January, with a mere 6 weeks to plan the entire thing out. Yipes!

Or that I volunteered to make fancy pop-up invitations?

Why do I always do this to myself?

Inevitably, as always seem to happen with weddings, there were problems with some of the pictures I was furnished for the project, and so we also had to do an impromptu photo shoot to get something that would work a little better. Which is a whole other blog posting.

The front cover needed to look somewhat traditional yet include Laker colors and a border of their wedding flower of choice, the hibiscus:



And the bride wanted to replicate the look of an actual Laker's ticket for the inside, containing all the pertinent details:



And here is the finished project product...in all it's z-fold, pop-up glory:



Whew...I was sweatin' it for a few days there, let me tell ya! I was neck-deep in wedding projects when I should have been getting my Christmas stuff done, and a youth group party at our house bearing down on us.

Jeff was a tremendous help, holding down the fort so I could get completely caught up.

This magical little tool was a wonderful help with the wrapping, too. Have you seen these things?



Mine was made by the Scotch tape people...and is a little like a toothbrush handle with a perfectly perpendicular (say that 10 times fast!) xacto knife inside it's 'mouth' which zips across wrapping paper like lightnin'. Made gift-wrapping a breeze!

I'm thrilled to say that as of last night, all I have left to do in preparation for Christmas is to finish some baking and a craft and deliver some goodies locally.

As Judah says, "YippeeHOO!"

The gifts are wrapped, cards are out, decorations up, church Christmas festivities (parties, visiting, Christmas Cantata) are mostly a wrap for the season, having been thoroughly enjoyed along the way.

Here, Judah was caroling with his AWANA group in a local nursing home, spreading cheer.

Singing loud for all to hear.



We were also scheduled to go caroling again last evening, but it was canceled due to inclement weather.

By inclement weather, we don't mean your run-of-the-mill snow or icy road conditions.

Nope, we mean the mud blocking the entrance to our church parking lot (enough to require a grader to move it all), flash flooding with water-mains breaking and dams spilling over adding to the flooding, roads washing out and area levee's being carefully monitored to be sure they held kind of inclement weather.

Here we were foolishly braving the road conditions to get some Christmas shopping done. It was hubcap high water gushing about in the streets (and this was during a break from the actual rain)!



One local friend saw several cars stuck window-deep in water on her way to work just minutes away from home, and some friends from our church had their dirt road wash out in the flash flooding leaving behind large ditches impossible to cross with a car (requiring county road crews to repair it), and are literally stranded in their home, which has turned into something of a castle with a moat surrounding it. Thankfully they were well-stocked and had nothing pressing to attend to!

Yes, in the desert of the great American Southwest, inclement weather is done differently than most other places.

Ugh. If it weren't for this little promise hanging in the sky:



I would have been a little worried that we were gonna need to board a boat two by two!

Of course, this lovely sky captured shortly after the rainbow helped, too.



In addition to all this lovely rain, we also had a bit of seepage in the same corner of our master bedroom closet as last year.

Last year it was due to ankle deep water flooding in, and we'd fixed that particular drainage issue, but as it turns out...during the deluges of the past few days, the sheets of rain splashing off the eaves onto our AC unit outside were still hitting a particular spot of the foundation behind it (on the other side of our Master bedroom closet) just right so as to wick inside, if that makes sense.

So, our carpet is once again pulled back with heater-fans drying out the area.

The fun just never ends!

:: :: :: ::

In the midst of all the chaos of the past couple of weeks, we also managed to squeeze in attending Jericho's final wrestling tournament.

He battled his season-long nemesis...the previously ranked #2 guy in his weight class in the league, defeating him and bumping him out of the running for the 3rd place medal.

It was a huge personal victory for Jericho.

Judah couldn't have been more proud of his big brother.



Even if he did pull another of his 'most embarrassing moments' stunts about halfway through the tournament.

The hubby, who is also one of Jericho's coaches, had a bit of a break and came up in the stands to visit with us for a bit.

Moments before he'd met up with us, I'd taken this picture, after little brother asked me to help him put big brother's headgear on.



Little did I know what visions of grandeur he was conjuring up in his mind at that moment.
While handing out snacks to Jeff and Jericho, I look down on the mats (in the middle of a match, mind you) and see this:



I freaked and choked and pointed, and Jeff shouted his name and motioned he'd better get back up there pronto took care of things quickly.

(The above photo was a post-tournament re-enactment of the actual events, with the very same boy who'd been on the mats with Judah earlier, taken just before Judah finally pinned his guy.)

And there was much chuckling around us in the stands as a result. **blushes**

Jericho's victory was a proud moment for us all.



I loved this photo best of all, with Grandma's finger blocking the bottom of my cell phone camera lens...and Judah frantically jumping up and down trying to make it into the photo. We took others with Jeff holding him up in the frame, but this one was my personal fave.

Did I mention how happy I am that Wrestling season is over? I don't think I could have handled one more match-worth of the nail-biting involved when your baby is out there on the mats, straining and striving for victory. It's exhausting...my abs were sore just from watching!

Later that evening, Jericho appeared in the kitchen wearing his dad's high school letterman jacket (excavated from the depths of the coat closet), and filling it out like a high schooler even if he is only in 8th grade.



And the cool thing about it...the first initial with the last name emblazoned across the back match his own, and so Jeff reluctantly relinquished the beloved relic, allowing him to wear it to school once...the day the team proudly wore their wrestling medals to school and placed their 3rd place trophy in the case in the main office.

**sniff, sniff** The boy is growing up!

:: :: :: ::

In other completely unrelated news, the olive trees in our desert are loaded with fruit.

Ever see an olive tree up close?



It's a beautiful sight.

I'm thinking we need to plant a couple of these on our little patch of land.

But then, we're big olive people in our household.



"Mama...don't I look just like a tree frog?"

Um...okay, if you say so...

:: :: :: ::

Whatever you do, don't make these as last minute Christmas goodies:



Because even though Pretzyls + Rolos + Pecans (melted together briefly in the oven) = easy, tasty Turtle-like candy confection that the kids will happily and willingly help to assemble...they are just tooooo tempting.

Sinfully so.

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT make these.

Addiction...it's a slippery slope.