School Spirit Day

The Friday before Thanksgiving my school had its first Spirit Day of the year. In the past we've had pajama day, crazy hair day, red shirt day, sports apparel day - all "normal" spirit days.

This year we let "Scholar Council" (3rd-6th graders elected to student government positions) choose the theme. What did they come up with??

Mustache & Talk-With-an-Accent Day!

I'm not that great with accent, but I can do a mustache. Rather than draw on my face, I ordered a 6-pack of stick-on mustaches online to share with the rest of the office.  During our calendar meeting on Friday it was impossible to get through our items of business without laughing. We looked so ridiculous - my boss looked just like Mario - and I wish we had taken a picture of us all together.

Modeling (if you can even call it that - I suck at modeling) my "Bandit" stache:

 

Some things I learned during my day as a mustached women:

• There were several parents that didn't get the memo that it was mustache day. When they came into the office, moms stared at me like I was a psycho. The first few times it happened I explained that it was spirit day, but after awhile I gave up, kept a straight face and just let them wonder...
• It's incredibly hard to eat or drink without making a mess. The 6th grade cooking class made smoothies, and I never knew drinking through a straw could be so difficult.
• If you're ever going to wear a stick-on mustache, make sure you are SMILING when you put it on or your face muscles will be frozen in a frown position like you've just had botox injections.

BYU vs. Idaho

Last night Dave and I went to the BYU football game. It was fun but f-f-f-freezing! Pretty much any child in attendance was dressed in a full snow suit. I came outfitted with pants, a shirt, a sweatshirt, a ski jacket, warm socks, boots, gloves, hat, scarf, hand warmers, two hoods, and....

HOT CHOCOLATE!!

We have a skinny thermos that fits unsuspectingly inside Dave's coat. The people sitting next to us were very jealous. We would break out the hot chocolate about twice a quarter and it was a life saver! When we ran out at the end of the third, we decided to go home. BYU was winning 42-7 at that point, so we had already seen most of the action. Go Cougars!

Part way through the first quarter, Riley Nelson left with a broken rib and Jake Heaps took over at quarterback. Dave and I made a little bet - Dave thought he would fumble first; I thought he would score a touchdown. I won and now Dave has an appointment with this dish pile - oh ye of little faith :)

 

TUCANOS (aka Fast Track to a Meat Coma)

Because my brother is leaving on his mission in a couple months, he really doesn't need any "thing" for his birthday. We thought since he will be serving in Brazil, it might be fun to take him out to eat at Tucanos instead!

To make the bill a little more manageable, we signed him up for the birthday club. Only problem was September came and went and his birthday coupon never arrived. But we just  kept waiting and waiting and I'm pretty sure Derek thought we forget his birthday. Then last week I got my birthday coupon and tonight we went and ate ourselves into a long overdue meat coma.

Mmmmmmm.......

With my brother Derek, celebrating one late and one early birthday

  

BYU Basketball - 3 for the price of 2

Yesterday I told my sister we could babysit while she went out with her husband. Then we realized that the BYU basketball game was the same night. Rather than back out of either, we decided to just take little miss Anne with us - she's free as a lap child, although she ended up with her own seat anyway.

We had tickets to the BYU vs. Dixie State game from my grandma. Her seats are AMAZING - on row 5, close enough even for Anne to follow the game. For the first half she kept up a running commentary of "ball bye-bye" (on the other end of the court), "ball back" (back on our side), and "Hi Beast!" (whenever she saw Cosmo the Cougar).

She also took time to feed this beast...

Dixie State actually gave BYU a run for their money - it was a close game to the end. Because the game was so competitive, we didn't want to leave early even though Anne was begging us to go "bye bye" (she probably asked 100 times). In the end, however, we convinced her to stay to watch BYU pull out a win.

M&Ms make great bribes, just don't tell mommy :)

 

Howe Pumpkin 2011

We didn't make it out to a pumpkin patch this year, so this beauty is from the pumpkin bin at the grocery store. He's missing his stem, but otherwise looks pretty good - good color, good carving surface, and stands up nice and straight. I'm glad to have found him because decent pumpkins are in short supply when you wait until a couple days before Halloween.

I like to carve more than just a face, but I also like making up my own designs. Patterns you find online look cool, but they're just not very personal :) This year I decided to carve "HOWE" with some Halloween themed letters. The pumpkin was pretty thick, so some of the details were pretty difficult, but it turned out great!

Carving away!

Finished Pumpkin

 

A better shot of the letters - Happy Halloween from the Howes!

Rise and Shout the Lamberts are Out!

This last week my parents were in town, and it was a busy few days! We ate out (a lot), saw a movie, played games, and went through the temple with my brother who is leaving on his mission in January. We also took advantage of the fact that we were all in one place and had family photos taken. The pictures were taken up the canyon and hopefully worked out well (I haven't seen them yet).

On the way back, however, we changed into our BYU gear and had a passerby take our picture in front the cougar outside the stadium. It's so fun that we all went to, or are currently attending, the same school and have this tradition in our family!

As for the two of us, not much is new.  We are currently on track to watch season three of Psych in less than a week, we just bought a new TV remote so now we can change channels and adjust volume without having to get up, and Dave and I had a friend connection of only 68/100 the last time we played Wii party. We're both working hard (Dave is getting ready to apply to PhD schools), playing hard (hooray for intramurals), are healthy, happy, and loving life!

Sheepish Lions - Family Kickball 2011

All my siblings are in Provo right now, plus a few cousins, so we decided to put together a Lambert-side family kickball team. Our team name was the 'Sheepish Lions' - if you haven't seen the Disney cartoon from the 50s, go here - it's a classic! We had fun, and for the most part, played well!

The Lambert Family 'Sheepish Lions' + a couple fans

From left to right:  cousins Katelyn & Kristen (cheerleaders), brother Derek, cousin Allison, cousin Kimberly, Kimberly's husband Michael, Me, Dave, sister Natalie, sister Amy, bro-in-law Jeremy, and Anne (cheerleader).

Not pictured: Dan (Allison's friend) and Bryan (Natalie's friend)

School Pictures & Me 20 Years Later

Part of working at a school means having your picture taken on school picture day. I had my mom send me my kindergarten photo for comparison. Below is my kindergarten self at 5 years old, and my present self at 25 years old.

How do they compare?

• Hair - still reddish and wavy, although now I straighten so you can't tell. Thank goodness the little wispy hairs up front either disappeared or grew into full length hair.
• Eyebrows - still dark and a different color from my hair. One of the most common questions my brother and I get is "Do you dye your hair? It doesn't match your eyebrows."
• Eyes - still brown, although now there's some green mixed in so they aren't quite as dark.
• Nose - exactly the same and still bleeds every time I get hit in the face, blow my nose, the weather's cold/hot/dry, or for no apparent reason.
• Freckles - I'm pretty sure I have more freckles now than as a kid. I don't really see any on my kindergarten self, but now after each summer I always have a good collection on my nose and cheeks.
• Teeth - improvement! Braces for a year & good dental hygiene have paid off!
• Skin - still pale
• Height - taller! but still on the short side. When we took the faculty picture I was on the front row, where I've always been my whole life.

Grab a photo of your kid self - it was fun to look at all the changes, or lack of changes. I guess I grew up alright :)

Bundle Up!

It SNOWED today! If you climbed up to the "Y" you could have a snowball fight! I'm still in denial... it was sunny and 80 degrees on Tuesday. Where did this come from?

Our poor 5th graders were on a field trip today at the zoo in Salt Lake and came back soaking wet and shivering. I am glad to be snug at home wearing sweats and drinking hot chocolate. It is supposed to get back to the 70s next week, but mom & dad, I still think you might want to bring some warm clothes for your visit just in case winter decides to stick around!

 

BYU vs USU

On Friday we went to the BYU football game with Amy and Anne (Jeremy couldn't make it). For this game we were sitting in my grandma's seats, which are actual seats, not bleachers! It was a beautiful, warm night and the Cougars put together an amazing 4th quarter to get the win. Go BYU!

Don't judge Dave's lack of team spirit here - he had to come straight from campus. At least his shirt had some little blue stripes :)

For the 3rd quarter I had this cutie on my lap, and she was just giddy with excitement. We weren't sure how Anne would handle sitting for so long, but she did awesome. She loved watching the game, when the crowd did the wave, whenever the cannon went off, and watching the band play at half time. We had to drag her home when it was time to leave.