Harrell's Pumpkin Patch

Here are the fruits of our labors.
They came away with a couple awards at the Halloween party: Most adorable, Most Creative, Best over all.
Can you guess which pumpkin got what?



Trunk or Treat. A lot of fun. A lot of candy. Dave got to show off his sword and used it to open a bag of skittles.



Dave went through quite a bit of rubbing alcohol to keep the fires stoked.



More than meets the eye. The kids were captivated by the color changing LED's.



We thought a sweet four year old girl was going to run off with Bubs our gourd. Once again, the lights. Mesmerizing.



The Carpel tunnel pumpkin. Can you notice anything wrong with the Black Widow? Dave says it's obviously wrong. But right for a Japanese Black Widow. I so think he made that up. But he sounded so convincing I didn't question it at the time.



Happy Halloween Everyone!

The next post will have nothing to do with pumpkins.  Promise.

Gearing up for Halloween

Tonight for date-night we carved pumpkins. This is the last year that we do this with kitchenware. Our ward Halloween party is tomorrow and we went with what we had. I picked a crappy flimsy kithen knife and a triangular file. Valli has been chipping away on her pumpkin for hours with a paring knife.



There must be better tools than these. Anyway- I am finished. The fact that it is completely on fire just makes it an authentic Dave Harrell pumpkin.



Isn't it just the cutest thing?

Wires, wires, wires everywhere

Craigslist is a fabulous tool in our household. We have aquired many great finds at reduced prices due to Craigslist and it's wonderful users that sell their stuff at times of deployment. Yesterday proved to be another example of the awesomeness that is Craigslist. A computer desk of our very own for ten dollars from a man toting an adorable eight day old bundle of baby boy around his garage while we loaded up the deal that is our new computer desk.
Today, Dave, in all his manly-technological-knowledge-of electronics-where-he-understands-the-confusion-that-is-the-underside-of-our-center-of- entertainment, the computer, hooked it all up in a snap.



And now we can watch The Office at our Friday lunch dates on the living room wall. (Projector, also a Craigslist find.) Woo hoo!

We Got Skills

Saturday morning me and Valli were working on our rock climbing skills.  Part of our emergency preparedness plan requires honing our superhero skills.  Good emergency prep requires a wide arsenal of skills.  Arrows in the quiver- so to speak. Such as finance skills, proper documentation skills, first aid skills, food storage skills.  Those are the foundation. Excellent emergence prep skills are what we are working on currently.  These are the super-hero skills.  Aggressive driving skills, hand-to-hand combat skills, spearfishing skills, numchuk skills.  That kind of thing.

Anyway.  We had a great time at King and Queen Bluff park.  Wiff and Sam were our trainers. They are two of our friends from church who come here and climb all the time. They are both really really good.  Valli and I have been here a bunch of time to practice the super-hero skill of rappelling, but we haven't got into climbing yet.  Wiff and Sam let us use their shoes and showed us how to Lead climb the right way.  We both wanted to stay a lot longer but I had to work all afternoon with the paramedics, and all night in the emergency room.  Which is a completely different story for another time.

Now I am going to take a page from Ed and ask- What are your super-hero skills?



Like a pro.



"This is hard."




"This is so easy!"



Valli is checking out my butt ...again.



This is Sam.  She is a lot better than I am, which makes me sad.



This is Sam's husband Wiff.  Wiff kicks butt.  We are very sad though because he is living this week for a 6 month business trip to the sandbox.  Not only are we deprived of his company and expertise, but now I have to go buy my own shoes.

Sabbath Activities

Valli and I have found a new way to expand our talents.  Each Sunday during sacrament meeting we draw.  We take it in turns-  each of us drawing one object at a time.  Sometimes we enlist the help us our neighbors.  Can you tell what parts are whose?  The following masterpieces are the results so far.  Each one is special.  Because we did them during sacrament/testimony meeting, it means we were really spiritual when we did them.  That's why they are so profound.


That's heaven up at the top.  I told you they are profound.


Featuring up-and-comming artist: Adam Fisher.  Obviously.


Tammy loves duckies.


This is todays.  That's Charlie Brown at the bottom, and Linus as the Holy Ghost.  Deep.

Sugary breakfast overload

Last Friday morning Breakfast:

These were a late morning creation of yumminess that exceeds description. What a great way to start a day. Dave was banished from the kitchen until this concoction of Strawberry cream cheese, Marshmallow cream, Whipped cream, Raspberry jam and other goodies could be placed in front of him. Yes, it was a lot of sugar. Umm, and cream.

It was crazy goodness though. The kind of crazy goodness that sends tentacles of flavor throughout your taste buds at the mere mention of it. The strawberry cream cheese and marshmallow cream came from a fruit dip I made earlier in the week and thought I'd just throw it in to test the waters. We normally don't have marshmallow cream for breakfast. Personally I don't have anything against it, at least now I don't. That wasn't the case before we devoured this meal. However, in my support of Dave keeping his hour glass figure I won't make a habit of this. At least it had fresh fruit that I cut with my own two little hands. Sooo, that compensates for all the refined foods part of it right?

Dave got the day off due to the reenlistment and I have Friday's off due to a great boss. It's great having a day off together! Anythings better than waking up at 4:30am.