A Very Merry Un-Birthday

Yes, it is November.  

No.  No one in this family has a birthday in November.  

Yes, we had a birthday party anyways.

See; when your kids all have birthdays one month apart from each other, birthday time can be a little excessive.  

And so, we combined.

2 girls, 1 birthday party.

Naturally, it was Oz-themed. 

Shocking, I'm sure. 

We ate a ton.

 

We decorated little Glinda crowns.

We  I stayed up till all hours of the night hand weaving individual Dorothy treat baskets for each child.  

Oh yes, I did.

We played "Wizard of Oz Says..." (Simon Says), Capture the Flag (except it was Capture Toto), and we had a hunt for candy among the poppies (pretty much an Easter egg hunt minus the eggs).

 We ate cake and icecream and blew out the unlit candles since the wind was so. not. cooperating.

 We (unsuccessfully) attempted to not step on the poor Wicked Witch of the East.

We Brooklyn madly obsessed over the cute boy from school who showed up at the party.

 

We teased the dive team members who came to help celebrate. 

(They are smitten with Aubrey, and the feeling is mutual.)

(They made the girls friendship bracelets that they totally think are the coolest things to ever have been made in the history of the world.)

 

And we had a really awesome birthday for 2 really awesome girls.

 Happy Birthdays.

I'm Ashley Webb, and I Approve This Message

*Disclaimer: My panties are in a very tight wad.  I've had just about all I can take with the political bashing/debating and I don't want no mo'.  So.  If you can't say anything nice, go say it on FaceBook and not on this blog.  (And if you do say it on this blog, I can and will delete your comment.  So there.) 

Please and Thanks.

*Disclaimer #2: I do like you.  I don't want to offend you.  But this is my party and I'll cry if I want to.  (You should cry too, cause it happened to you...   You just sang that in your head, didn't you?)

Yesterday sucked.  

And I didn't like it.  

I dragged the juniors to the polling place (used my new CA I.D. that was issued with the wrong name on it and attempted to vote, even though I wasn't registered - even though I did register.  Yea.  Try explaining that to the volunteer vote-counter.) and I voted.  

I voted hard.

I practically ripped a hole in the paper from voting so hard.  

 

And then I waited.  I was feeling pretty good about it.  You know - 16 trillion in debt, 8% unemployment, record-high gas and food prices, train wreck debates, a VP who's a complete baffoon, the worst schools in history, the despicable handling of the Benghazi attacks...  

It doesn't really seem like a tough call.

But then the crap hit the fan.  

Apparently it is a tough call.  

Seriously.  This country needs a Department of Common Sense.

And the rest, as we all know, was history.

And the truth is I was kind of crushed.  

Like don't-even-want-to-talk-about-it, think-I-might-throw-up, please-let-this-be-a-bad-dream, CRUSHED.

I just had actually started to believe that some real hope and change could take place.

And it didn't.

And it made me kind of sad.

And then I woke up this morning and started to count all of the reasons that this might actually be a good thing.  

And here they are: 

#1: Mitt and his family will get to live their lives in (relative) peace.

I hated what the media did to him during this election.  It was despicable.  And he didn't deserve it.  

Maybe now, they'll leave him alone.

(Plus, his sweet family won't have to sit by and watch their dad get torn apart.  If I had to hear 1/100th of the stuff about my dad that people have said about him, I would be serving hard time.)

#2: The media can drop the lie telling and ridiculous attacks on my church.  Which is good, cause I couldn't take much more.

#3: Mitt would have inherited this huge rats nest of a mess and then been blamed for everything that Obama wasn't blamed for.  It would have happened.  And it would have been frustrating to watch. 

#4: No matter who leads us, we are still the greatest nation in the world.   

#5: We can grow from this.  

You see, I was praying pretty hard about this election.  I prayed that what was best for America would happen.  

And I think it did.  

Now, wait.

I'm not saying that Obama is the best leader for America.  He's. Not.

I'm saying that maybe America needs this right now.  

Maybe we need the trials.

Maybe we need the opposition.

Maybe we need to use this as an opportunity to be renewed in teaching our children what's right. 

Maybe this is a test that we need to pass.

Maybe this is our chance to prove ourselves.

Maybe.

Over the Rainbow

A few weeks ago, I gave a talk in church (on this amazing Conference talk), and as occasionally tends to happen in this situation, I ended up learning a little something from it.

I learned to stop looking over the rainbow.

I'll admit it.  

I look over the rainbow.  Sometimes.  A lot of times, even.

 I get caught up in the dream that there is a place where the clouds are far behind me and troubles might actually melt like lemondrops.  

It's easy when your days consist of making PB&J's, changing diapers, and cleaning toilets to imagine that there is something better out there.  Something significant.  Something special. 

And then I remember the Wizard of Oz.

 

Sure, life would be easier if our challenges were overcome by clicking our heels together, or waving a magic wand, or splashing the villains with water. 

But then I remember that life is about enjoying the journey.  

It's about offering a hand when a friend is feeling a little rusty.

It's about learning to dust yourself off, pick yourself up, and put your straw back in place.

It's about finding the courage that you didn't even know you had.  Even when the yellow brick road is dark, and lonely, and scary.

Because, really, those are the moments that matter.  The moments when you discover that you do have a brain.  And a heart.  And a whole lot of courage. And that there really is No Place Like Home.

And I'm reminded once again that it's about being happy.
Right now.  

Tornadoes and witches and all.

And when I get carried away in those moments of doubt, I just need to remind myself that they are my something better.  My something significant.  My something special.

 

And the beauty of it is, that I don't need to go to the other side of the rainbow to find happiness. 

I just need to look in my own backyard. 

Our Hallows Eve

This year was the year of Oz.  

My dad showed the girls that movie a few months back and there was no discussion needed.  

Oz it was.

(Aubrey: Dorothy, Me: The Wicked Witch, Brooklyn: Glinda, Luke: The Tin Man, Cameron: The Cowardly Lion.)

 So... I whipped up a little Glinda costume with my bare hands, some left-over fabric, 10 yards of tulle, absolutely no pattern, a pair of pink tights, 2 flexible cutting boards, glitter glue, a pack of rhinestones, a wing and a prayer.

 The First Place Award for Group Costume would suggest that I pulled it off. 

 Next, I had to whip together a Tin Man costume for Luke using a windshield sun protector, a stapler, 4 snaps, a funnel, a cardboard heart, a picture of a clock, and a Costco apple package. 

Not even joking.

Cameron and Aubrey's costumes are vintage.  

I wore Aubrey's Dorothy costume at her age, and my Grandma made Cameron's costume 15 years ago.

 We hit up the ward Trunk-or-Treat party and had ourselves a blast.  

 Right there in the middle of the Trunk-or-Treat, Luke and Aubrey broke out in a full-on dance party.  

Those two are something special.

Then Cameron practically fell asleep while sucking on a sucker and we took the poor kid home.  

 Halloween night we hit up the hottest party in town at our friend's house.

Luke wouldn't wear his full costume and I wanted to hit him.

Also, I am super graceful and I spilled an entire bowl of soup all over myself which was really awesome.

  

The food was delightful, though.  

And so was the company.

Look at these faces. 

Oh, boy.  We are so in trouble in a few years. 

The Cowardly Lion spent the entire night attempting to prove his bravery by running into the street. 

 It got very, very old very, very quickly.

 

 Then Snow White licked Dorothy on the shoulder.

Ha.lar.ious. 

 

Eventually we got around to Trick-or-Treating.  

 There were about 15 kids sprinting from door-to-door (and more than once inviting themselves right into some strangers house) demanding candy and eating it almost as quickly as they could gather it.

 Grandma and Grandpa got in on the action too, and what a party it was.

Happy Halloween from all the munchkins in Oz.