Embarrassing Moment

Well, I am feeling rather embarrassed right now.

Remember the panties-and-bra prank our neighbors pulled a few weeks ago? And the cups-o-water prank we got them back with? They looooved it. And they also let us in on a secret--that some of our other neighbors had also been involved in the panties-and-bra prank. So naturally, we've been plotting our response 

Chad thought of something simple, but delightful. A nice "Give Thanks" banner (you know, keeping in the spirit of the holidays and all) constructed of the bras and panties left over from the original prank. It didn't take long to make, but putting it up without getting caught was more difficult impossible.

Last night, we went over around 11pm. Lights on in the front room. No sight of the neighbors, but who knows if they might have strolled into their front room and seen us out there. No go.

This morning, we got up at 6am thinking we could quickly hang the banner. The minute we stepped onto the porch, their dog (who knew they had a dog?!) started barking its head off. Fail.

So today, when one of my appointments cancelled, I saw my chance. Both of their cars were gone, and I thought, "This is going to be so awesome. I'm going to pull this off in broad daylight." (Broad daylight, yes, but pulling it off...not so much).

So there I was, with the banner almost hung up completely, standing on their front porch trying to get the letters to hang right, smiling smugly at the dog barking on the other side of the door, when suddenly, my neighbor's car appears and pulls into their driveway. I duck down, but then realize we've made full eye contact, it's completely light outside, and I'm still standing--frozen--on the porch. 

I made a little joke when he got out of the car and said, "Oh hey, I was just delivering that banner you ordered." Ha. Ha. And then he helped me finish putting it up. Pretty sweet, although I was pretty embarrassed for getting caught. He says he'll leave it up so his girlfriend can be surprised.

I must say, I'm feeling much less confident about my pranking abilities. Guess I needed to be humbled a bit. 

as you can see, I never quite got the letters to hang right, but I was too embarrassed to obsess over the details once the guy got home. I was pretty excited to get outta there. . . (oh hey! I just noticed you can see the dog standing in the doorway. he was not happy with me.)

Aruba, Jamaica...nah, I'll just stick with Aruba.

I am so in love with Aruba.

It began when the Lord sent me there for 6 months as a missionary and then for another 3 after some mission time spent in other places.

It continued when I went back a year later because I scored a research grant to learn about marriage education on the island.

I slogged through my master's thesis, which I wrote about the marriage education in Aruba, while fantasizing about being IN ARUBA.

And now, three years later, I keep feeling pulled back to my little "dushi tera" (sweet land). I am obsessed with that place! I've gotten to share it with mission companions, and my parents, and Steve & Barbara Duncan when they came to help out with the research. Next month, I get to share it with the love of my life, so I'm extra extra excited. I hope he loves it as much as I do.

I'm planning on snorkel time, and pastechi/pan keshi (delicious food involving delicious Dutch cheese), and batidos (fresh fruit smoothies), and tracking people down I haven't talked to in 2 years, and lounging. Lots of lounging. I'm sure it'll be cool to see the Christmas lights on all the pretty houses, too. I haven't ever been there at Christmastime. Oh, it's going to be glorious.

This is me, and Chad. Well, it will be me and Chad. 

Politics

I feel a little down after elections yesterday.

I think of myself as politically moderate, but I was pulling for Mitt.

I am worried about the debt our country is in, and what will happen with the hundreds of dollars garnered from each paycheck I make. Is that money being used efficiently? As someone who works in the social services industry, and serves many people with Medicaid, I think not. It is sad to say, but that is my experience.

I think that Obama is a symbol to many people of something more than just a President. He is seen as a symbol of equal rights, and progression. Some see him as a savior of sorts. I don't think he is a bad man, but I would have been happy to see him on his way out.

Now that the elections are over, there's not much to do but continue to support our President, focus on bettering myself and bettering the community I live in. Each of us has a continual influence by being who we are and speaking about the issues that are important to us.

I'm glad to be an American, and pray we will continue to be blessed with freedoms we have always enjoyed.

Prank Wars, Part II

After much hemming and hawing, we selected the ol' cups-full-of-water-stacked-in-a-pyramid-blocking-their-front-door prank for the neighbors. I think they liked it. My informal neighborhood survey tells me that neighborhood morale has increased several points in the past two days, and I can't help but attribute the increase to some great pranks.

notice the water on the ground in this picture--we did have a slip-up and knock over about half of the tower at one point. lucky for us, the family's two dogs said nothing, no alarms went off, and we were able to complete the project. 

Candy Corn Cookies

Tomorrow--an update on the prank war with the neighbors.

But today, some pictures of the cute Halloween treats we made on Wednesday. I got the recipe from ourbestbites.com (love that site!). Of course, you can go to their website and get a great tutorial, but I was so fascinated and excited about the process that I took my own pictures.

You start with great sugar cookie dough (this is the recipe I will probably use for the rest of my life, after trying it Wednesday--amazing!), divide it into three sections, and color two of the sections yellow and orange, respectively. (You leave one section white, of course). You layer them into a clear-wrap-lined loaf pan, and chill for an hour or overnight. You want each layer to be about 1/4" tall, so my dough didn't fill the whole length of the loaf pan.

Once the dough is chilled, you slice very thin pieces (like you would a loaf of bread). Cut out some triangles (I want to say "inverse triangles," but I don't know if that really describes what I mean. Check out the bestbites page if you need a picture). 

I also made some hearts, just because I thought they would be cute. 

 And we dipped everything in sugar.

What a fun treat and so fun to give away! A couple of our neighbors insisted it was the best sugar cookie they had tasted, which is a first for me and made me feel pretty awesome. Overall, a smashing success.

Notice Anything Funny About Our House?

Look harder. . .

yep. bras and panties in our tree.

we consider ourselves officially initiated into the neighborhood.

The main issue at this point, is not how do we get them off of our tree (although, eventually I should probably worry about that), but rather how on earth are we going to get our revenge? Somehow I feel like TP-ing isn't wacky/embarrassing enough. Any ideas? We need something good for our favorite new neighbors. . .

Oh, and just so you know, we actually love these neighbors. I was honestly a bit. . .honored to see our tree all decorated when I left for work this morning. It's a bit of a standing prank in the neighborhood, so we feel like this is our official welcome. But really, we've gotta figure out something good.

Tomorrow, I will show you the AWESOME candy corn cookies we made last night!