My Neighbor is One Foxy Mama!

It was so cool, as we were driving home from church on Easter, to see a gorgeous red fox sitting on top of his den. This is just up the street from our house, in perfect view of a main road. I knew that he lived near us; I'd seen him in the distance one early morning a few years ago. The den is so camouflaged though, that even though I pass it multiple times a day, I couldn't pick it out consistently before that Sunday.

Then, a few days later, I saw not only my fox, but also 5 or 6 kits as well! Tumbling and rolling and wrestling, with MAMA fox standing guard. What a celebration of spring! So I've been stalking my fox, keeping my camera in the car in hopes of catching them all in photo. But that mama fox is a good, protective mama. The one time I saw her and a kit out, she saw me stop across the road and hid the kit behind her, before shooing it quickly into the den. She just stared at me, moved farther from the den, and then eventually ran off, I assume to lead me away from her kits. So I'm sorry I don't have the perfect picture of them all scampering about, but here's the gorgeous mama fox, and if you look closely, maybe you can see the tail of the kit behind her tail.

Hooters

Well, the local P&S is carrying in their magazine section, not only our lovely SI Swimsuit edition (right on eye-level of children), but also a new mag aptly titled "Hooters". I'm sure your imagination is right on the mark. And this month's Vanity Fair, in all it's nudey glory, was right in the check-out lane. ARGH!!

On the up side, I left a note for the manager, with my name and phone number, and he called back. He spoke to my husband and said that they will speak to the magazine rep about a more family-friendly arrangement of the mags they carry. I'm glad he spoke to my husband because it gave T a chance to say, as a grown male, that even adults don't want to see those things.

So, if you shop at my local P&S, will you do me a favor? If the mags are still out, will you also please make a comment to the manager? And if you don't see them, will you give them a big thank you? I think that will help keep things cleaner in the future. Thanks for your help, friends!

Mustache Monday

So, T was in North Carolina for 7 days with some of his buddies from work. Besides the fact that we at home survived thanks only to the help of my sister--what with a trip to Urgent Care and whatnot--the most memorable feature of this trip was the souvenier my husband brought home with him.
Facial Hair.

All of T's workfriends decided not to shave while they were gone, so that they could all show up at work together for Mustache Monday. This is definitely a new look for T. I can go for a little scruff, and I guess it added a little excitement to our welcome home smootcheroo session since I had to try to kiss him without getting whiskerburn.

So Monday morning came, and all the scruff came off except for the Mexican mustache. I meant to get a picture of that, but unfortunately I had some kind of 24-hour killer bug, so I was out for the count. Actually, one of T's workfriends suggested that I had gotten the swine flu from T's Mexican mustache. Maybe. The mustache looked pretty lethal.

As T & I discussed our different hair situations, I was lamenting to him that Couscous had recently said, "Wow, mommy! You have such pretty sparkly silver highlights!"

He held up our resident scalped doll lying around

and said, "It sure beats the alternative."

Spring Break!!

Life is just so good!

T & I finished our last ballroom dance class last Friday. It is so much fun to dance with my husband!! Mission accomplished! He can lead, I can follow, and we have a blast. We thought that we were dancing as well as the other couples in our class, but then we found out they had taken the Beginner's level 3 times. So as we were leaving and giving our thanks to Lou and Dorothy, I asked if we had passed--if we could move on to the intermediate class next time. Dorothy looked at us and said, "You? Oh, absolutely!" Yay!! Just call us Ginger and Fred! We finished up our evening together watching "Twilight". I saw it in the theater when some girlfriends, but I liked it more this time. I think part of it was because I wasn't judging it against the book, like I did in the theater--I already knew what I was getting this time around, so I could enjoy it for itself. But second of all, it was nice watching it with T. He had promised in advance not to laugh at it. And he admitted to liking it! He even wants to read the book!

We pulled some strings this year and the Easter Bunny agreed to come on Saturday morning instead. The kids woke up to minimal candy in their baskets and a note saying that most of the eggs he hid for us at our cousins. We had such a fun time with the Easter egg hunt at their house; we stayed and played some games, and really enjoyed ourselves on Saturday. That left Sunday with the opportunity to be so much more focused on the true meaning of Easter. We had a wonderful meeting at Church, and that afternoon we had a powerful discussion about Christ's Atonement and Resurrection. I kept getting moved to tears, although that's not too uncommon for me. (My kids ask me to read the children's Friend magazine and keep glancing at me whenever I pause, just see how far I can get into the story before I start tearing up.) We closed out our glorious Easter by having family, friends, and the missionaries over for Easter dinner.

And today my kids and I kicked off Spring Break week by taking a trip around the world. We packed a lunch and went to the museum. We visited South and Central America, Africa, Asia & the Pacific Islands, Autstralia, and even the Artic. Did you know that Pacific Islanders used shark teeth to make their spears? I didn't. After our world travels we enjoyed the butterflies and dinosaurs. Then, tonight, to celebrate the accomlishment of Avandra having finished the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ in her personal reading, we went out to the fun pizza/entertainment place tonight. Thanks to the economic downturn, prices are lower and with coupon in hand we had ourselves a mighty fun time for a very resonable price!

Hope you all had a wonderfully meaningful Easter, and are enjoying life also!

Addictions & 8 Things...

Hello. My name is Henrietta Hoopenhollar and I am addicted to food.

That's how I feel like I should start this blog post after my lame-o commitment to healthy eating. Actually, my scale tells me my self-restraint has paid 5 lbs in dividends--which puts me at the same weight as when I got married. However, I think my scale is simply error-prone because I've blown off my non-diet for the last 10 days. Truly, I 've been naughty. You don't even want to know how many snickerdoodles I've eaten in the last 2 days --and yes, Megan, I hold you personally responsible for giving me your delicious recipe when I asked you for it! :)

But instead of giving food any more blog space, I guess facebook is going well. I've been enjoying the reconnections, and one of them, (Hi Mami Jo!) has tagged me from her blog. I have never, ever responded to tags, but this time I think I will.

8 Things I did Yesterday:
1. gave my younger kids an emergency bath
2. drove my older daughter to school when she missed the bus, because she was reading instead of getting ready for school, while I was giving the younger kids a bath
3. didn't get mad at my daughter, but later we discussed some logical consequences
4. went to playgroup
5. sewed and otherwise problem-solved through my mending pile
6. prepared letters to Pres. Barack Obama for the LIFE Envelope Project (formerly the Red Envelope Project), to affirm the Right to Life
7. sighed with disappointment when the Vermont legislature affirmed the court decision and legalized same-sex marriage--right on the tail of Iowa--Ouch!
8. laughed through Bryan Kest's power yoga with my sister. My legs and shoulders still feel it though so it must have been successful. Namasdai everybody!

8 Favorite TV Shows:

Easy. I don't watch TV. Don't even own one. And everytime we stay with people who do watch TV, we easily recommit to no TV. But I have my own

3 Favorite Time Wasters (I was supposed to do 8, but I guess I lack diversity at how I waste my time):
1. Spending time on the internet
2. Wasteful reading
3. Trying to guess who will receive the new callings with the ward boundary changes. I'm hopelessly bad. Like the time I KNEW who was going to be the new primary president. I was so confident I even told my sister. Imagine my surprise when on Sunday they asked my sister to stand as the new primary president!


8 Wishes (+ 2 to grow an inch):
1. That people wouldn't litter
2. That people wouldn't drive drunk
3. That I could have guarantees that my children will turn out great
4. That my children wouldn't get their worst behaviors from their mother
5. That I had more self-mastery
6. That I could live somewhere that stays between 60-85 degrees, and is sunny 300 days a year, but still green
7. That if I can't get perfect weather, then could I at least have a great big Southern-facing window?
8. That I could stay grounded in faith and activism, while laughing way more often, not taking myself too seriously, and living more spontaneously.
9. That I could write a novel. I tried once, but before I got through the first page my main character told me that my dialogue sucked. A harsh term, but it was true.
10. My true fantasy wish??? That I was flying at top speed in my new blue BMW Z4 convertible, zipping around the curves of Provo Canyon, looking a whole lot like Audrey Hepburn with my hair up, sunglasses on, and driving gloves. There you go guys. That is truly, honestly me.