Halloween 2011!

More miracles to count and more stories to tell! First, an inspirational story.

For several years, my Mom has managed a congenital heart condition with a special pacemaker. It is very small and placed below the skin and muscle instead of being placed directly in the chest cavity. Its actually a very neat little device, and does not require nearly as invasive procedures to place and maintain it. A couple weeks ago, my Mom fell while working around the house and dislodged her pacemaker. The doctor attempted to tape her shoulder in hopes that the pacemaker would slide back into place on its own, but the tape only succeeded in tearing up her skin. She was referred to a cardiac surgeon so that the unit could be replaced and then reinserted into its proper place. The surgery would be risky and would require her staying on bed rest for roughly 6 weeks. After many prayers and a special temple trip, Mom went to her surgery consultation. The doctor evaluated the damage, and with a few firm "massaging pushes" (she would argue otherwise), the pacemaker slid right back into place! She said the pain was gone instantly, and the doctor felt no surgery or further action was needed. What an amazing blessing! With thanksgiving coming, its definitely something I will be putting on my tree of gratitude.

Now to Halloween! During our anniversary weekend at home, Nate and I watched one of our favorite movies: Tron Legacy. Inspiration struck-let's have a Tron themed Halloween party! We got busy and began designing and constructing our own Tron Halloween costumes. Nate researched and purchased the actual light panels used to make the costumes in the movie. I took it upon myself to design the patterns for both costumes and to then cut out and sew them. It turned out to be somewhat of a disaster! Thankfully, Grandma Uustalu is a very talented and patient seamstress. She made me promise I would never design my own pattern again. Don't worry Grandma, I promise! I will sew again, but never again make my own patterns. What a mess! With two straight weeks of sewing and alterations she turned the project into an amazing replica of the outfit worn by Kevin Flynn when he returns to the "The Grid" to save Sam. My costume was easier to sew, but much harder to construct the lights. We decided to go with reflective tape since it is much cheaper and much easier to cut and shape. In the end, both were a success!

Quorra

Quorra Costume

Disc Wars

Kevin Flynn Costume

Kevin Flynn, Creator of the Grid

The Master

To go with our costumes, we decided to go all out for the Halloween Tron party. We borrowed several black lights from some friends and asked my brother Jon, who goes by the name DJ Flux, to DJ the party. He also brought several lights and helped turn the place into the "End of the Line" Program Club. My friend Andrea and I carved disc and light cycle Jack-o-lanterns. We even created some blue Tron punch by illuminating a bowl of blue Kool-Aid with black lights. It was tasty, but the light from the punch attracted some gypsy moths. Its Halloween, and everybody likes extra protien right? One of the guests thought the moth was a joke, until it started moving. Oops! Needless to say, the punch bowl was changed a couple times that evening. We also featured a couple classic Halloween games: bobbing for apples and eating donuts hung from the ceiling. All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend Halloween and we had a blast doing it. But apparently, we did too good of a job-we have been asked to plan the ward Christmas party. Oh fun........ :)

End of the line Party!

Peeps!

We are kind of awful dancers, but its too much fun to resist!

Flynn & Quorra, mission accomplished

A final story to make you chuckle! I recently was called back to primary and am teaching the 5 year-olds. The lesson plans asked us to introduce keeping our minds and bodies clean. The manual called for an object lesson that related to clean bodies and minds to pure salt, and watching bad movies or saying bad words like mixing pepper into a handful of pure salt. Being the sweet 5 year-olds that they are, the kids could not understand why anyone would not want salt and pepper on their food. So, we then related clean minds and bodies to a yummy bowl of ice cream, and bad movies and habits like finding a cockroach in the ice cream. That seemed to sink in a lot better. But when we talked about how to avoid forming bad habits, like swearing or watching TV shows that are not nice, they were still struggling a little bit to grasp the idea, so we related it to a bird that flies into a tree. Just because the bird flies into a tree, doesn't mean we have to let it build a nest, right? Makes sense to me! One of the kids looked at me with a sad face and said, "I saw a bird nest in my tree yesterday! I will tell my Dad about it!" Other kids started saying that they had recently seen birds in their trees too. Oh dear. Its ok to like birds everyone! I tried to reassure them. In the end, I explained what we had been learning to their parents in hope that things could be clarified at home. I wanted to laugh and cry-poor kids! Thank goodness the lesson this Sunday went much better. "Count your blessings name them one by One!"

We are excited for the upcoming holiday season, and hope to keep you updated on the adventures of the Knighton household. Happy Halloween and Thanksgiving everyone! :D