How many American’s does it take to change a light bulb?

Apparently more than 3!

Sometime last week the light bulb in Melissa’s room burnt out. She got the ladder out of the closet and tried to change the light bulb…but she couldn’t get it unscrewed. So she asked me to try and I couldn’t get it either. Abby didn’t have any luck either. So Melissa asked Ralph if he would come over and help us with our light bulb to which he replied “Oh, don’t you know the light bulbs are different than in the US”…we figured he was joking with us/making fun of the fact that we couldn’t change a light bulb…but he was being serious! Apparently some of the light bulbs here look like:

Our attempts to unscrew the light bulb failed because it couldn't be unscrewed. So to change these light bulbs you have to push up and then twist a little bit and it pops right out. Who would have guessed that there were different kinds of light bulbs?! Not me!

Geordie 101

The dialect in Newcastle/the north east of England is called Geordie. It took getting used to! The first few weeks I had no clue what half the words coming out the kids mouths were! Here is a list of some of the words I have heard often since I have been here.

aye=yes
a’reet=alright, alright is used as a greeting and it doesn’t mean “are you ok?” or like I would normally think of when someone asked if I was alright, it is like our “Hi, how are you?”
cuppa=a cup of tea (many cuppas are consumed in a day! 3 is my max but I've seen people drink more than that!)
deeks=look at
doon=down
gob=mouth
hadaway=get away
hoy= to throw
hoos=house
lend=borrow
nowt=nothing
oot=out
ower=over
pet= a term of endearment used for both genders
ta=thank you
tab=cigarette
toon=town
us=me (this one confused me a lot at first!)
whey aye=yes
wor=our

Another difference I have noticed is with spelling. When the kids gather before sessions we make a list of their names. Sometimes I don't know all the last names so I ask what their last name is and how to spell it. This is problematic because instead of saying the letter names they say the letter sounds and at a rapid fire speed! Normally they end up writing it down because I just can't catch it even if they say it 2 or 3 times!

Some common names, at least with the kids, are Chloe, James, Aidan, Liam, and Jack.

Playing catch up

On Wednesday November 24 the snow adventures in Newcastle started! A few days earlier I was told that normally they don’t see snow until January in Newcastle so I was a little bummed that it wouldn’t snow for another month. Little did I know that a snow storm was about to hit Newcastle! It proceeded to snow for 6 days! Not constantly but off and on each day! I loved it but boy did it cause problems! Even when it snows, the snow doesn’t normally stick around very long, or so I’m told so almost a week of snowing just isn’t normal.
Thursday November 25 was the first day that there was actually a bunch of snow on the ground and apparently it is tradition that after the first snowfall there is a big snowball fight before the session…and there definitely was! Lot of snowballs flying at me and somehow one ended up in the pocket of the vest I was wearing. Not exactly something I normally do on Thanksgiving but to everyone here it was just another day.
On Friday, November 26, evening I baked my first batch of Christmas cookies, sugar cookie cut outs with frosting. I kept some for us to eat but the main reason for making them was to sell at the Common Ground Christmas fair taking place on Saturday. Sadly when I went to help set up for the fair there was a sign on the door saying that the Christmas fair had been cancelled due to the weather. I was a bit disappointed because I had spent time making the cookies and I could have been doing something else but at least we got to eat more this way! I went back to the flat and we headed out to do the shopping for the Thanksgiving dinner we were cooking for the Kids Kabin staff, the other volunteers on the west side of Newcastle and the sisters and brothers….in total about 20 people. So needless to say that was the biggest craziest shopping trip ever!! Wow! First of all it was just super expensive and the amount of food we had to bring back was incredible as well (a massive turkey, and ingredients for stuffing, corn, green beans casserole, rolls, spinach, cornbread muffins, pumpkin pie, apple pie, ice cream, jello, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes). Times like this make you appreciate having a car and just piling all the groceries in the trunk! Since we had already gotten a bus pass to go grocery shopping, we went into town to see the Christmas market and maybe get some Christmas shopping done as well. The Christmas market was neat but not nearly as big as the one in Cannes. Also, when we walked into Primark they looked like they were closing up even though they were supposed to be open for another hour and a half…we were told that the buses were stopping early so the stores were closing early. Darn! Snow just changes everything here! We also gained a leak in the living room ceiling…but luckily Sr. Sylvia stopped by 20 minutes after we noticed it because she was bringing us a cool advent candle that has 1 to 24 listed on it and you are supposed to burn down one number each night. So we were able to tell her about the leak and she is going to have someone come over to look at it.
On Sunday November 28 we didn’t go into town for Mass at the chaplaincy like we normally do because we didn’t want to get stuck in town if the buses stopped early again…they ended up running as normal but there was no way to guarantee they wouldn’t stop early like they did the night before. We like going to the chaplaincy instead of mass at St. Anthony’s across the street for many reasons but will go to St. Anthony’s from time to time. The music is MUCH better at the chaplaincy! At St. Anthony’s the song lyrics are projected onto the wall behind the altar and the music is played off of a recording and half of it sounds like elevator music! Also, we don’t agree with most of the messages in the homily at St. Anthony’s…the priest has very conservative old school views on many things and we can relate to the messages at the chaplaincy! Abby made the pumpkin pies and I made the apple pie on Sunday as well.

Monday November 29: Melissa and I brought all our Thanksgiving day feast supplies over to

Kids Kabin in the morning and put the turkey in the oven only to have Will (project manager of Kids Kabin) call us half an hour later to say that he couldn’t make it in because the road were so bad and he didn’t want the other staff to struggle to get it either and that Kids Kabin would be closed and the dinner rescheduled for Thursday! We weren’t happy! We had to cook the turkey either way because we couldn’t refreeze it and it would keep much better in the fridge if it was cooked. So we spent 6 hours in Kids Kabin with the turkey. When Abby came after her morning working at a primary school, Melissa and I took a break from manning the turkey and went to the woodwork room to work on making a spice rack for our kitchen since we had been meaning to make one for a long time.

Tuesday November 30: In the morning I went to Common Ground but I am told I missed all the fun back at the flat! An inspector came from the council with Sr. Sylvia to look at the leak in our ceiling. Right before they came the gutter fell off the back of our flat and was blocking the door. So Melissa or Abby went through the back gate and moved it so the back door could open. And then Sr. Sylvia almost went sliding down all the steps in the back when she went out with the inspector guy to look at the gutter situation as well. Yikes!

Wednesday December 1: Even though it was snowy I decided to go to rowing because the coach said if it was snowy we would just have an indoor workout which was fine with me. I take 2 buses to get to rowing. I had to wait for the second bus for 40 minutes (normally it comes every 10 minutes) and was frozen but the time it finally came. I got to the rowing club 30 minutes late to find it was closed and there weren’t even any tire tracks in the snow or footprints on the steps! So annoying! So I turned around and went back into town and spent the morning wandering around town instead. It wasn’t waste of a morning by any means but disappointing when you expect to do something and then you can’t. The sisters had a going away party for one of the volunteers on the other side of Newcastle which was nice but sad because Jannice was really nice and I would have like to get to know her better. Also, Flan came! Flannery is another AMA volunteer but she is in Cork Ireland for the year and she came to visit us!

Thursday December 2 was our rescheduled Thanksgiving celebration! Not nearly as many people were able to come but it was still yummy! I went in to Kids Kabin early so I could put together the cookie turkeys before heading over to Common Ground. I had already made my pie and put the jelly (what we call jello) in the fridge the night before so all I had to do after Common Ground was make the green bean casserole. I missed an epic turkey carving and lots of other fun preparations while I was at Common Ground. The cookie turkeys were a big hit and it was fun to see some reactions to the various food. There weren’t too many complaints but one guy had never had spinach and after one bit he made a green bean fort around the spinach on his plate so it wouldn’t contaminate the other food. Haha! The only other complaint was another guy said there was a spice in the pumpkin pie that reminded him of bad childhood memories, interesting. Otherwise everyone enjoyed the meal and Sister Jill was pleased with her gluten free mini apple and pumpkin pies we made her. We had a lot of leftovers because for some reason or another even though we knew several people were not coming we still made the same amount of food we had originally planned on making. After a busy day and all the work on getting the meal ready it was nice to come home and relax and chat! We got to hear about Flannery’s experiences so far and we watched “Love Actually” as well.
Friday December 3: We got the day off! The school group that normally comes in around 1 cancelled because they didn’t have school because “the weather was too bad”. This was nice because then we were able to take our time showing Flannery around Newcastle and we were able to just stay downtown instead of going into town, back to Kids Kabin and then back to town for dinner out. On our trip in town we walked by Fenwick's Christmas window. They have Christmas music playing and a north pole themed window display. Pretty fun! We finished off the night with SET, Bananagrams and another movie. I was excited that Flan knew how to plan SET and wanted to play because I had wanted to play since putting it in my suitcase! It was a ton of fun having someone visit!!!
Saturday December 4: We put up our Christmas tree! It is the first fake tree I’ve had but it was super easy and no one has to water it every day or so and there won’t be any needles to clean up. This being said, I still prefer a real tree! I just don’t have a clue where you would get one around here and I like that the fake tree was free (aka in our storage closet upstairs)! It is also weird having a tree with so many of the same ornaments! There was a box of silver snowflakes and a box of gold balls and 3 random ornaments….not like our tree at home at all! We all have our own collection of ornaments and there are not many plain colored balls found on our tree! I am planning on making a few new ornaments for our tree.

This past week was just a normal week. Since it was so snowy lately there have been very few donations coming into Common Ground and the food drawers are almost all empty! I felt bad when I was giving out the food this week because half the drawers were empty and then sometimes they didn’t want what was in the drawers that did have some food in them (No oil, sugar, tea, coffee, pasta, rice, tomatoes, fruit, soup…some toiletries, vegetables, meat and baked beans). I really hope this week brings some donations!

It has been really interesting listening to everyone talk about the snow and cold weather! It seems completely normal to me but it is so out of the ordinary for this time of year in Newcastle! We got a decent amount of snow (6-8 inches??) but it was over 5 days so this would be no big deal in MN but when there aren’t many plows and people are not used to the snow it causes major problems! People on benefits were getting “cold payments” to help pay for the extra heating costs because it had been cold for a certain number of days. I wouldn’t have guessed that “cold payments” existed but I guess they do! On the bright side, it created fun woodwork projects: sleds (or sledges as the English call them)! Also, many kids were being pulled around on sledges instead of being pushed in their usual strollers since the sidewalks were covered in snow…it was super cute!

Sadly over the last two days the temperatures have returned to normal for this time of year and almost all the snow has melted! It is so strange seeing grass! It seems like I fast forwarded to March or April. I really hope it snows again before Christmas so we have a white Christmas! But if the weather is back to normal we might not see snow until January which I am told is when it normally starts snowing.

Wellies have been my lifesaver during the snow! They keep your feet nice a dry but do nothing to keep them warm! As of yesterday I have fleece wellie socks to put inside my wellies and they will help my feet stay warm.

Christmas cookie batch number 2 was made last night! I made peanut butter "kiss" cookies but used Cadbury Buttons instead. They are just as tasty! I think a second batch will be required since they are rapidly disappearing!

Ireland

Abby and I went to Dublin and Belfast November 12-15. We were actually only there for two full days since we had a 9:30 pm flight Friday night and a 9:30 am flight Monday morning. It was a very quick trip, but a nice trip nonetheless. Br. Ralph drove us to the airport on Friday night and was his usual joking and random fact telling shelf on the ride to the airport. He is really nice and very helpful! He is always willing to come over and do any house repairs that we happen to need.
When we got to Dublin we successfully exchanged some Euro bills for coins and found the bus we wanted to get into town (the bus only accepts coins). We asked to get off at one stop but the bus was actually not stopping at that stop the bus driver told us we would only be about 2 blocks away which was fine with us. When we got off the bus the bus driver asked if we knew where we were going and then gave us directions! So nice! We had a map so we knew basically where we were going but it was really nice of him anyway. Since it was about 11:30 when we got to our hostel it was off to bed! We had to put the duvet covers on our duvets….and everyone else in the room was already asleep….it is interesting putting a duvet cover on in the dark!
Saturday morning we slept in a little but not a lot. We went out and walked around a bit and made our way over to St. Stephen’s Green. It is a lovely park with several ponds, a couple fountains and lots of trees. We took our time in the park and then headed over to the City Hall for our free walking tour of the city :) On the way, I was checking the map to make sure we were still heading the right direction and a lady asked if we needed any directions….we gladly took her directions and they were prefect! Another kind Irish person! Our walking tour was nice but we only stayed for the first half of it and ditched out when people split up for the coffee break because we were meeting Flannery, another AMA volunteer who is in Cork Ireland, in a few minutes. It just happened that she could take the bus up and meet us in Dublin which was great! We went to two museums, The National Gallery and The Archeology Museum (not the exact name). They were both interesting but I liked the Archeology Museum better. There was an exhibit called “Bog Bodies” that was really interesting. Basically it was a bunch of bodies that were found preserved to various degrees in bogs with facts about bogs and bog bodies. It was interesting and a topic I had never heard about before. After the two museums Flannery suggested a hot drink so we stopped at a coffee store chain called “Insomnia”. We were chatting and catching up in general when the lady at the table behind us interrupted our conversation to tell Flannery she should run a marathon (we were talking about running) and it turns out she was from Deephaven MN!!! Talk about small world! She was just on vacation with her husband. Crazy. Next we wandered down one of the main street admiring the Christmas/winter lights and the hustle and bustle of the pedestrian street. We walked with Flannery most of the way back to the bus stop and then headed to meet Elizabeth! We were all a bit hungry so we found a place for dinner, got caught up and then headed to a pub Elizabeth liked for a drink. It was a nice pub but sadly they weren’t playing traditional Irish music…just the radio. It was a nice way to end the day anyway.
On Sunday we went to Belfast. We had debated staying in Dublin, going to Belfast as planned or changing the plans completely and going to Galway. For a few reasons we decided to go to Belfast. On the bus ride there we entered an area of thick fog and it lasted a long time! I was bummed and was thinking we should have gone somewhere else or stayed in Dublin but magically about 10 minutes outside of Belfast it cleared up! Talk about perfect timing! As we walked towards the main streets from the bus station we heard some music. It turns out that it was a Remembrance Day ceremony taking place at the City Hall (which is MUCH cooler looking than the Dublin City Hall). Remembrance Day is like Memorial Day in the US and it was neat to see part of this ceremony. On the bus ride to Belfast, Elizabeth had mentioned that the British song “God Save the Queen” has the same tune as “America the Beautiful” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN9EC3Gy6Nk). They played this song at the end of the ceremony and it was so strange to hear such a patriotic American song played in Northern Ireland with a completely different meaning. We took a bus tour of Belfast that took us to many interesting sites and told us some history of the city as well which was really helpful for Abby and me! We got off at Queen’s University and went to the museum there. It was a great museum and they had an exhibit about the troubles which I really liked because I had not taken the time to look up much information about the troubles before going to Belfast. There was a lot of science stuff in the museum too which I of course loved! We walked around a bit more and had dinner before heading back to Dublin. Abby and I went to the pub on the corner of the street our hostel was on for a drink and to listen to music since they had live music playing. It was great! The perfect way to end our first trip to Ireland (we are definitely going to plan a return trip to Ireland).

While one day in each city was not enough, I‘m still glad I got to see both cities.

This past Saturday (November 20), Melissa and I helped wrap presents for the Common Ground Christmas party. Sadly, it is on the same night as Kids Kabin dinner out and I’m not sure which I will attend since I would like to go to both.

We are going to have our Thanksgiving celebration next Monday November 29. We are inviting all the Kids Kabin volunteers and staff, the brothers and sisters and the other volunteers on the west side of Newcastle so we should have a pretty big group! I’m excited.

It rained all weekend and off and on all day today. There is precipitation of some sort in the forecast for the next week which is a bummer but there is snow in the forecast for Thursday – Sunday which I am excited about! I hope it actually does snow even if it doesn’t stick.

Half term trips and Alnwick Castle

A few weeks ago (Oct. 25-29) was half term, basically a week long break from school. During the half term breaks KK runs day trips and kids are invited to go on one of them based on their interests. I went on two of the trips, Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Tuesday it was the bike trip. Since it had rained a lot overnight the original plan had to be changed since it was so wet outside. So we biked to North Tyneside and went bowling! I was winning on my lane for the first 5 frames or so but ended up finishing in the middle. After the bowling alley, we continued on and biked to a park where the kids ran around for awhile. Then we continued on and rode through some pretty woods although the paths were really muddy and there were lots of puddles. Needless to say we all looked like we jumped in a mud puddle by the end of the bike ride! In total, I was told we biked about 13 miles which is a pretty good distance for 8-12 year olds (and 23 year olds)! Everyone was pretty tired by the end and some of the kids needed encouragement the last mile or two to keep pedaling. They kept saying “I’m knackered”! It was a tiring trip.

On Wednesday we went to a brick making factory in Gateshead. They had something like 8 million bricks on stock! Or maybe it was 800,000….anyway, it was a lot! It was pretty cool seeing how the bricks were made, the gigantic kiln they had and how the special shaped bricks were made. After lunch we had the chance to make a sculpture/mural that will be brought back to KK when it has been fired. It will be neat to see the finished project. Some of the kids were really cute and said some hilarious things on the trip, even the ones the normally give us trouble. It is always nice to see them in a different setting and catch a glimpse of their good side which we know exists. They were all proud of their work too!

Since I missed Common Ground on Tuesday I went on Monday instead because Melissa was unable to go on Monday like she normally does. Monday was great! Monday is the busiest day at Common Ground with a lot of people coming in for support, lots of donations coming in and lots of activity in general! I also went to Common Ground on Thursday like normal.

Since Abby and I had nothing to do on Friday we took the opportunity to go to Alnwick Castle (pronounced An-ick)! This castle is still lived in and St. Cloud State University actually has a study abroad program based there! I saw several signs that said “Private: St. Cloud State University”. It was a neat castle but what we were really excited about was the parts of the first and second Harry Potter movie were filmed there! I was super excited at one point when I walked through a gate and immediately recognized the area where they had their first flying lesson! We took a tour that told us where all the movie sights were :) That night when we went back to our flat we started watching the movie but only got about 20 minutes in before we were both asleep on the couch. I still need to finish watching to see all the places I recognize. We felt like total nerds but were also really excited about it! Sadly, there are 20 or so filming locations for each of the Harry Potter movies….so far we have been to 2. It was a nice way to spend a free day!

Last Week and this past weekend

Wed. Nov. 3
This week was the start of our winter “street sessions”. Since it is too cold and gets dark so early, we will now be going to various community centers and doing activities there a couple days a week. Today we went to the Monkchester Community Center for the first time. I brought decoupage and Abby brought pottery. Brioni will normally bring some music and do a dance activity but she had been sick and wanted to take it easy tonight. Several of the kids got really into the decoupage so that was good. Every Wednesday a group of parents have a dinner and activities for the kids while they sit and chat so we are just bringing new and extra activities for them to do. Part of the room usually has a football game going on and the noise level was off the charts but besides that, I think this “street session” will normally go pretty well. There were a bunch of kids who normally go to KK there but also lots that don’t so it was a nice mix of familiar and new faces.

Thursday Nov. 4
Thursday was a normal day except for the fact that we started night sessions at Daisy Hill youth center. It is a nearby center that has activities for 13-19 year olds, so basically it is a KK for teens. Bruce, Melissa and I went and brought wood carving as an activity. Well, as Bruce said at the end “that went”….and that was all you really could say. These teens made many of the kids at KK who give us trouble look like saints! They were older and more out of control. Some of them were really well behaved and got on with the activity and did a nice job carving but several others were wild and ruined a lot of wood. When we left the lady in charge said they had to close for awhile because the behavior was so bad…I can see why. She also said that it would be closed for another month or so but they recently opened again because the board made them open again. It will be interesting to see how this goes in future weeks!

Friday Nov. 5
Today was the first day that we had a new school group come in. A class from this school will be coming for 6 Fridays to do “art club”. I don’t think there is as much art in primary schools here as in the US or at least that is what it seems like. So we will run 4 activities while they are there: art (Melissa), pottery (Abby), woodwork (Will) and cookery (Me). I think it went really well for everyone this week and hopefully it will each week! It is really nice when we work with school groups because everyone is normally well behaved and even eager to clean up which hardly ever happens during the afternoon sessions.

The more exciting part of the day was Bonfire Night in Walker Park. On November 5, 1605 13 people tried to blow up the House of Parliament by placing 36 barrels of gunpowder in the cellar. In the process of blowing up the House of Parliament the King would be killed. Their plan was foiled and Guy Fawkes was caught in the act, tortured and executed. Bonfires were lit that night to celebrate that the King was still alive. Now it has become a big holiday and each year bonfires are lit and there are fireworks to celebrate the Gunpowder plot being foiled.

Historically, a Guy Fawkes figure would be put on the top of the bonfire to burn but our bonfire had a dinosaur on the top....seems a little more appropriate than burning something that looks like a human. The bonfire was HUGE! But sadly it burned down pretty quickly but it was nice while it lasted.

We went to the local celebration in Walker Park and helped sell “glow sticks” although they weren’t what I would call glow sticks but battery powered spinning or flashing things. There were spinning hats, star wars type light sabers, light up spinning stars, etc. Each year the city council sells these “glow sticks” to help raise money for the firework display the next year which seems like a good idea to me! We saw many people we knew throughout the night from Kids Kabin and Common Ground.

Saturday November 6

Melissa and I had a very lazy day on Saturday....we didn't even leave the flat! Abby left early to visit a friend in Birmingham so she wasn't around. I slept in till almost noon which was amazing! Then I spent the rest of the day getting my wireless internet to work again, watching tv online and reading. When I finally wanted to go out and do something active it was going to be pitch black in an hour so that didn't really give me enough time to do anything without buying a bus pass so I decided to just stay in. It is nice having lazy days sometimes.

Sunday Novermber 7

Although it was nice having a lazy day on Saturday I was determined to get out of the flat before we left for church. I made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, did some cleaning and then decided that since I would need a day bus pass to go to church anyway that I would go into town and take the bus over to Gateshead and check out the Metro Centre. The Metro Centre is a huge shopping mall so nothing really special but I have been meaning to go anyway just to see what it was like. It is huge!! I stayed in the shopping mall area but there are lots of other shops around it like an IKEA and Costco. I plan on going back and getting over to IKEA! When I went to add money to my phone in the Metro Centre, the guy who was helping me had actually been to Minnesota and Iowa! Apparently his wife is from the US and he has spent a good amount of time in the states. So we chatted for a few minutes and I mentioned that there were some things I missed from back home that I couldn't get here....and to that he said one thing he missed about the US was Taco Bell...haha! Not exactly what I had in mind! After the Metro Center, I wandered around Newcastle a little bit going to a few shops I wanted to go to and checking prices on a few items at different stores. I debated staying in town until church but decided that going home would be good since it gets dark really early and shops close earlier on Sundays.

Since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, all the stores are already in Christmas mode! It is crazy and I don't like it!! I know there is probably a lot of Christmas stuff out in stores in the US already but I'm a fan of taking it one holiday at a time.

Monday November 8

Last week the weather was actually pretty mild but this weekend the weather made the switch again and it is colder and windier again. Bummer. I was hoping the nicer weather would stick around for another week or two. I had planned on finding the bike path near our flat that you can take into town this morning but there was a 90% chance of rain, lots of wind and dark clouds covering the sky so my plan was foiled. Hopefully I will be able to find the bike path before it gets really cold!

Halloween

Sunday Oct. 31
On Saturday we went on a pumpkin hunt and all found suitable pumpkins for carving although wandering up and down Shields Road looking at the selection the various produce stands had for sale does not compare to going to an apple orchard or pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin! Even looking through the giant bins of pumpkins at Cub was more eventful than our frantic search for pumpkins. Oh well. We were very last minute shoppers for our pumpkins so we couldn’t really expect much. Also, we were looking for a pumpkin carving kit and never found one. We weren't sure how our kitchen knives would work but they ended up working just fine.

All our pumpkins - Melissa, Abby, Me

We all did various things in the morning, ignored one trick-or-treater at about 4:30 pm, went to church, ate dinner and carved pumpkins while watching “It’s the great pumpkin Charlie Brown”. We were not interrupted once by any other trick-or-treaters. We were told to avoid answering the door because the kids are not supposed to know where we live. It turned out not to be a problem, either there just weren’t many or they all came while we were at church. Since we have been going to church in town, the whole trip takes about 2 hours so there is a good chance the rest of the trick-or-treaters came while we were gone (between 6:15 and 8:15 pm). Halloween is growing into a bigger holiday here but it is nothing compared to Halloween in the US. We had a good time carving our pumpkins and put tea candles inside. By looking at our pumpkins you can totally tell that Abby is an artist and I am not! Her pumpkin design is many many times more complicated than mine! Melissa’s is more advanced as well. Mine was simple but that is fine with me. I had fun carving my pumpkin and since it was small, it was really easy to clean out! I hope you all had a fun Halloween!