Appreciation for Husband, Sunday, the 39th

Today was so cool. The kids and I watched a movie together and we all sat and ate Halloween candy. (I certainly learned which kids loved me the most and would share their chocolate.) As I ate the candy I would shove the wrappers down the couch cushions just like they do every year... and it felt ssssoooooo good! Tomorrow I am going to make one of them vacuum under the couch cushions. Hee hee.

Anyhow.....

Bahaaahaaaaa! I could be in huge trouble for this. But I love the year Corey wore this costume and passed out candy. It was divine. I have begged him to wear it every year since but he won't. So I shall torture him with past pictures.

Corey has NEVER been interested in walking the neighborhood on Halloween night with the kids. NEVER. He would rather stay home and pass out the candy.

For several years I have acted annoyed and begrudged him, "Why do you get to stay home and pass out the candy while I have to walk the kids around the neighborhood!"

But secretly my heart soars. I LOVE to walk my kids around the neighbor hood, trick or treating. I love their little "trick or treats" and their "thank yous" and the hyper spastic racing to the next houses. I love seeing the houses decked out their scariest. I love seeing the faces of neighbors I otherwise would never see.

So imagine my dismay this year when Corey told me he wanted to take the kids around the neighborhood!

"You do?" I calmly replied with a sad heart. "Oh, okay."

So Halloween night, Corey had just came home from hunting. I was getting every one ready. I asked him if he wanted to take the kids around... preparing myself.

He says...."No , I know how much you love to."

Phew...But I do feel bad that he is missing out. We could both go!

We actually live in the kind of neighborhood where you can leave a bowl of candy out for people to help themselves, and they only take one!

Neighbors just relaxing and handing out candy.

I love it! Someday I am going to do this, and I am going to hand out full size candy bars. Someday. One neighbor hands out hot chocolate, not just the packets, hot chocolate!

Well, I might as well show you what the kids dressed up as....

Justine the sleepwalker...

Nathan, who went to a party with friends and watch "Arachnophobia" and then couldn't go to bed without me tucking him in and checking his sheets for spiders!

Nathan and Rhett wanted to create a scene where the werewolf was eating the man. It was a little hard to get the full effect with a Care Bear in the back ground!

Bo- I decided, anything this short with a face mask on is just creepy!

Rhett.... ummm I don't know. He changed like three times. He wasn't happy with the swamp man I picked up on clearance last year.

Kate the Care Bear



And it breaks my heart to report that I did not get a picture of Kassidy. She was a Taylor Lautner fan. I am going to have her redress up and I will post it here later if you really care to come back and look. Devoted followers that you are.



This year we had a school carnival. And this is what one calls....

"Face Painting gone wrong!"


Camouflage
Butterfly (we got this one free) Kate moved too much.

Happy Howloween! (I made that one up! I think....)

Slice of Life #24....Costumes.... my #3

Remember the good old days? When no one ever paid money for costumes? When we just got creative and inventive? I loved this year when I was Frankenstein. It was fun.

I remember the year my mom dressed me up more for her than for me! I was in 6th grade and she made me dress up like a bowl of jelly beans. And I mean she MADE me dress up. Basically she sewed some kind of a thick plastic and I had to wear it like a bowl and then she put all these balloons inside to make the jelly beans. And I had to wear a plastic hat for the lid. I had to wear a black leotard on underneath. And there really weren't enough balloons to hide behind. Talk about self concious. 6th grade, people!!!! I was like 12! It was so humiliating.

My mom sewed this costume for me as a toddler.


Nathan as Raggedy Andy -doesn't get better than this!

Rhett my adorable leopard

My kitchen redo in my dreams

I have been dreaming about fixing up my kitchen. It has been making me very happy. Just sometimes dreaming about things is enough, isn't it? Just to know you have a plan?

I have been following two decorating blogs. Frankly, I am terrified to even look at any more. I quickly become burdened with too many good ideas and then depressed that I can't incorporate all (if any) of those good ideas. But these two blogs have caught my interest, and they are thrifty decorating blogs which I think is way funner. And they are "do it yourself" blogs which I also like.

Our house is about 40 years old. When we first moved in I walked around in heaven! It was our first home and it felt like a mansion. We had fours kids 7 and under. Well, having those four kids all grow up by 9 years and adding two more kids has made this home feel all too squishy! (Having several children the size of adults is getting weird!) But I like this house and this neighborhood...and I don't feel like my job here is done yet.

I have always wanted to make this house the most wonderful it can be. I want it to live up to it's fullest potential. However, as you all know, I have been in survival mode raising teenagers, kids, and babies. And the house has come last and is now showing it's sad neglect.

So over the next few blogs I am going to show you in detail my plans for my kitchen. Whether I get it done or not will be a different story but here are my thoughts.

First of all....Here is the link to the blog of the cutest, talentest ( I want to copy about a hundred ideas) couple ever. I really LOVE almost...okay... everything...they do. And I might just copy about two more of her rooms if I ever get around to it, including their latest post.

http://theletteredcottage.net/

They fixed their kitchen up and they had similar cupboards to mine. I loved their kitchen so that is the one I am using as a pattern. So here is a before and after of their kitchen.

I know! Shocking huh? How incredible is the transformation? Same cupboard. Same counter top!


Isn't it amazing? They just redid the cupboards! Which is one of the things I am most interested in. Plus I love the white. Since my kitchen is fairly small I think the white will lighten it up.

Corey was a good sport when I showed him my "newest" idea. Then he informed me he actually liked their old kitchen better. Wha????? That is just lunacy.

Then he gave me permission to just do whatever I wanted. And I grabbed that permission in a choke hold and I ain't lettin' go and you all have proof right here of what he said. And since he is chronic about forgetting things like this, I will let you know when the time is right to give him a reminder!

Okay.....sooooo....... here is a before of my kitchen.

Since I had to clean my whole kitchen before I could take any pictures, afterwards I thought...."WOW! It really isn't that bad. It mostly just needed to be cleaned". Ha ha.

But don't you think it could work???

It is a very small kitchen for a family of 8! When we are all in here it is mass mayhem. And the way it is arranged with that island in the middle, it is impossible for more than one person to work in here. And the cupboard space is ridiculous. Partly because I removed half the cupboards that were hanging massively and directly ABOVE the oven island. It was crazy. And when the dishwasher is open you can't even get through. And when everyone is at the table no one can get up and I mean NO ONE! So you better not need one single thing. I spend all my meals getting stuff for people. It is nutty. In future blogs I will go into detail more about my kitchen's issues.

I also love this lady's blog.

She does some cool thrifty things. (Remind me to show you what I want to do to solve what I like to refer to as, "chronic split level stairs syndrome".)
But for now, I wanted to show you the lighting she rigged up under her cupboards. I love it.

I want to do it also. Along with the white bead board (to die for) and sconces (? those wood things that look like they are holding up the cupboards) shown in both kitchens.

So in the next few kitchen blogs, I will show you in detail my plans. I don't know if I can really get it done. And if I do, will it really be like these kitchens? Can I pull it off? Semi cheaply? I am afraid without those gorgeous wood floors that I can't afford, I may not be able to. I am scared. I don't know why really...but I am. What if it doesn't turn out? But it is fun to plan.

Boys!

I loved my little Bo today.

He was just sitting in his skeleton Halloween costume playing rescue people, stopping to pound a song out on the toy piano...

"A guy broke his leg yes, a guy broke his leg yes, a guy broke his leg..."

Such a musical future I see there!

Khronicles of Kate

Too cute not to post.

Kate really loves our old gal "Josie". She tells me "Josie cute". And I agree. Josie puts up with a lot. Especially from the latest toddler to wallow all over her.

Kate likes to eat Josie's dog biscuits. Corey told me so the other day. And today I caught her with one that she was suppose to feed to Josie but apparently never did. She was nibbling on it and told me "mmm, good." Corey got after her and told her to give it to Josie. She put her head down slowly, terribly sad. Then she looked at him so defiantly, we know we are in trouble for when she is a teenager. I guess she feels VERY strongly about eating dog bones.

Why am I up so late at night? Kate went to bed at 8:00pm right on the dot. I was so relieved. She then proceeded to take a half hour nap and now she will not fall back asleep. Sigh. She wears me out. But she is cute as the dickens. And I don't really even know what that means!

Disclaimer: As cute as the photo is, Kate is not asleep. She is just playing.

The fatty is a big sister!!!!

Remember our fatty rabbit that we had to rotate on a regular basis because she was too fat to flip over? Well look at her now!

She's a cutie! Both ears are laying flat also. She is only pet quality due to feet that flair out. Also the silly thing seems to have changed the way her bottom tooth is growing. We suspect she jerk it by chewing on her cage. Because rabbit's teeth grow continuously this is a pretty serious issue. Our guru has been clipping it for us in hopes it straightens itself back out. I am too grossed out by teeth to clip it myself. I think I may have mentioned that a time or too. Teeth issues= Bleck!

I may have been to embarrassed to mention before that I let my kid spend 150.00 bucks (ha ha, get it?) on a rabbit... but I did. Our sweet friends generously paid her for pet sitting, knowing she was saving for this rabbit. We got him from the best Holland Lop ARBA judge ever, Alan Ormond. His quality is excellent and we are hoping to breed some nice rabbits to show/breed/sell (she needs to make some of her money back)! His name is Hank. Here he is...

See the short ears and smashed face...that is good. See how grumpy he looks...that is good.

....and we bred him to the fatty's mother and now the fatty is a sister to two new little fatties who are once again spoiled by being in a small litter and getting all their mother's milk to themselves.

Justine and I can't quit drooling over these little guys. They are so cute and we are having high expectation for their quality.

For some unknown reason, Justine really doesn't like black and white rabbits. But this one has fun markings so we like it.

Look at that tummy!

Hopefully we won't have to rotate them also! We already are bringing them in to sleep for the night so they don't freeze. We just bring the nest box in and in the morning give the mom back her babies. Rabbits are funny that way. You can handle their babies from birth. Because they are prey animals they do not spend much time in their nest box lest they bring a predator with them. They generally only feed twice a day. So the rest of the time the babies are on their own.

This is Myra. Justine also bought her at the same time as Hank (did I mention we love Dr. Quinn?). We think she is pregnant and we are just waiting for babies.

Her ears are too long and her head is too small but apparently having a good buck (Hank) is important enough to maybe overcome her issues. I am not the Guru so don't quote me on any of this.

We currently have a rabbit in our freezer. We are going to eat it...not this week, but eventually. I was a little disappointed that my dad brought him to me in one big rabbit form. I was hoping for pieces. Now I have to cut the thing up. Eww. But I shall do it, for I am pioneer stock in more ways than just being solid!

Also if you look at the sad picture of me holding the baby rabbit, I think I hold my thumb funny from having carpal tunnel so long. And I think it might be coming back. And if it is I think the doctor told me there is nothing to be done and I will be a claw hand......which might be great for Halloween but not so great for living. So I might need to call and see what to do. I think I am having returning numbness. If so, Rhett will owe me big time because he is the baby that brought all this on!....Maybe posterity shouldn't know that.

Like mother like daughter

How happy am I that my daughter seems to have inherited my desire for crazy cake making?????

VERY!

She made these cupcakes ALL BY HERSELF for her seminary class. Which might I add she gets up at 5:30 in the morning to attend! Just like I use to. I was super disappointed when I found out they would have early morning seminary. I really worried they would be too tired to pay attention. But the sacrifice of early morning seminary is something special. And I am glad she is making it.

Anyway.... MUMMIES!!!!! Aren't they grand?

Also when I went to check in on Kate last night I noticed her little hand was clutched around the bunk bed frame while she was asleep. I smiled to myself because I do that too. I sleep with my arm under my pillow holding onto part of the headboard. Just in case you cared. Which I am sure you don't.

But something you will care about is.... I am planning a redo of my kitchen. I don't know when it will happen but I am going to show you step by step all the plans I have for it. Then if it never happens it will sort of feel like it did. Kind of. Okay... maybe not but it will be down for the record that I had a dang good plan!

Khronicles of Kate

She is still at it! She is just so funny though. Sometimes I will be watching her watch TV and she is watching it with a huge scowl on her face. I don't quite know what is up with her.

They love her in nursery (her Sunday class) because she is so cuddly with everyone. She is very friendly. If it is Sunday, she will be asleep still and I will say "Katev want to go to class?" and she will pop up out of a dead sleep excited to go to class. It is sweet.

The other night she went to bed all cute and clean.

I woke her up because we had to be somewhere early and she looked like this!

Marker all over her hands. She had apparently gotten up in the wee hours of the early morning, just taken a little sleeping break to color all over herself and then go back to bed. Who does that?????

Then last night I got her out of the bath, Corey dressed her while I made dinner and literally 10 minutes late she came to the dinner table looking like this!

She put her face on for dinner! She is so polite.

Appreciation for husband, Sunday, the 38th

As a house wife our "Kudos" comes in terms of slobbery kisses and homemade cards. Which are fabulous of course. Wouldn't trade them for the world.

My husbands "Kudos" as an employee comes in financial bonuses, gift cards, monetary things!

I wants some monetary "Kudos" darn it! I JUST do! Is that so wrong? I just want a gift card that says "You make those toilets sparkle like no one else can!" I want a Christmas bonus that says "Your mothering skills are out of control!" (in a good way).

So it was actually a nice surprise the other day when I woke up and I found two cards to get some free food at a local restaurant in town. Corey had stuck them in my bathroom mirror. I felt like I had received a "Kudos"! A "nice job"! A "you are the best"!

It was great. Next time I want a gift card to Deseret books though. I can dream bigger right?

Just in case my posterity wants to know...

I am STILL irritated that they took the light brown M&Ms out and put those heinous most ugly blue M&Ms in. When I see that blue color it is an assault to my optic senses. And when I see that blue I always remember light brown. Light brown was my favorite color and I don't care how much you want to argue with me...they tasted the best. The next best tasting color is the dark brown. When I eat them I eat them in pairs and in matching colors and I break off their shells in my mouth. It is a fine art.

Anyway, so I haven't forgotten you little light brown M&M. No matter how many years you have been cast aside you are still my favorite. Sorry Blue.

Slice of life #23 The Treat... my #2

I like how Texasblu said it would be hard to decide on which "Treat" to write about. It is! But one "Treat" keeps coming to my mind and it really wasn't done to me (well part of it was) but I want to share it because it was so sweet. And once again, I want to remember it!

Last week one of the sweetest ladies (Sandy)in the world showed up at my door with a big old Pepsi. I am not a huge pop drinker but occasionally it is the best! But when I saw her I was momentarily traumatized. Like seriously. I was scared to death. First words out of my mouth were "are you here to tell me my kids did something bad?" "Did my son say something perverted?" "Have my kids done something to your house?" I was freaked out. I don't even know why really. It's not like they have been out terrorizing the world but I momentarily had a panic attack. She insisted she was just at my door to visit. I admire the woman who can brave my threshold into my world of chaos. After we sat and chatted, I still had a little hard time relaxing because then I started thinking after my awful greeting she really did have something bad to tell me but decided not to. But she kept insisting she just wanted to chat. And it was REALLY REALLY fun.

Anyway, she told me this story about her family. And how her mom was elderly and not very mobile and my friend had just gotten home from work. She suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome and was very tired. And her mom called and asked if maybe my friend could DRIVE over to bring her a diet coke up from the basement. I was like "Were you annoyed? Like can't you just wait until dad comes home for your diet coke?"

And my friend was so sweet and said that her mother was so dear and wonderful and that if she wanted a diet coke and if my friend was able to grant her such a pleasure in her elderly suffering years, then she would do whatever she needed to get her a diet coke. Be still my heart.

Isn't that the sweetest thing ever? I just loved it. I I hope my children will feel that way about me and more importantly I hope I can be that kind of daughter because I DO feel that way about my mom.

One "Treat" I do want to remember from my childhood is when my sweetie Grandpa Shady was visiting (which maybe only happened twice in my childhood) I remember asking my mom for some money. I was a bit of a tom boy and I wanted to buy a Stomper! They were really popular back then. Little cars that look like 4 wheel drives that had batteries to make them drive. My brother and I would make dirt tracks outside with hills and steep inclines and such and we would see if we could get the Stompers to tackle our tracks.

So I went to ask my mom for money and before I could even ask, my sweetie Grandpa had his wallet out and was giving me money. I remember my mom smiling because she just already knew that was how my grandpa was. That he would bend over backwards for us and loved us.

Anyone who knew him recognized what a "treat" it was.