Spirit week continues at the kids' school. Yesterday was "show us your bling" day. Which means anything that shines, sparkles, or blings, bring it. Kinda tough with all boys, but we were creative.
How could you not love this face? Such a ham. =p
Gotta love Spirit Week. :)
Since I volunteered at the school all day, I decided to get in on the action. Doncha love my itchy watery allergy eyes?
Sorry I've been kind of MIA lately. That last cold/flu/virus/mack-truck/whatever-hit-me kind of zapped my energy. I finally learned that the Nyquil was keeping me exhausted and sleepy throughout the following day, so I gave that up and have been feeling much better since.
School's been kicking my butt too--last night we took the family to Country Kitchen for dinner and during our meal all Dan and I were talking about was Cardiac Output and ventricles and blood pressure and stroke volume and systole and diastole and etc etc etc. My brain was fried.
I finally started my garden, but I'm sure, way too late. I have tomato plants, green onions, carrots, and cucumbers this time. Not sure why since I don't even like cucumbers. But it's what I had on hand. We'll see if anything grows before it gets too cold.
I just finished reading "My Sister's Keeper" which is probably the saddest book I've ever read. Not just the ending and resolution but every-single-stinking-chapter within. Sad just for the sake of being sad? I'm not sure. I then tortured myself by watching the movie which I hated even more because it didn't stick to the plot of the book. *shrug* I can't recommend either.
We've had a couple of fun nights with friends--on Friday Karaoke and the "Transformers 2" movie and then Monday night for Family Home Evening with the Mechams out at White Tanks, a hike, and a picnic dinner. So fun! We sure love our friends.
Is it possible that Christmas is only 2 months away? I haven't planned ONE thing. November is going to be crazy, I can tell!
This week is Spirit Week at the boys' school, so they've gotten to dress up a little bit each day. Today is Crazy Hair Day. Much gel, hairspray, and hair spray paint is on the agenda. Better get to it.
Have a safe Halloween everyone!
Our ward Trunk or Treat party was Saturday night. And I was too lazy to dress up or take decent pictures of my children. (I still have another ward's Fall Carnival and Halloween to take care of either of those) But I did get these couple while sitting lazily on the sidewalk as the kids finished up their 'treating'.
I was lucky enough this year in that all my kids wanted to dress up as something they'd been before. So here we have a repeat of Spiderman, the Knight, and Sean was Harry Potter again though I didn't get a picture of that.
I did get some of my special daycare friends though. (I'm so sad I didn't get a picture of Andrielle that night, she was dressed up as the cutest little 30's Flapper girl)
How cute are these two? They have completely disobeyed me and not stopped growing!
And because I can't resist, I have to post this one.
Love ya, James. :)
(Tomorrow is the last day to enter the $100 Visa giveaway as sponsored by BlogHer and Febreze. Don't forget to check it out. And then take me out to dinner when you win!)
We upgraded and are giving away this HP Deskjet 722C. It needs ink--both black/white and color cartridges. If you're interested, come on over and pick 'er up. :)
My goal this week, when I get my voice and lungs back, is to learn to sing and play this song. What do you think of it?
My world came to a screeching halt last Tuesday when I started getting sick--well maybe not so much a screeching halt but more like a major decrease to about 10 mi/hr--affecting not only my health but my patience, my education, my volunteer work, my social life and so on.
It's just a head cold, but forcing myself to drive to school last Thursday, with my eyes all blurry, my sneezes going a mile a minute, and my seal bark-like cough (seriously, I thought a had croup for a minute until Danny promised I didn't have the necessary symptoms) was torture. I made it through class and then beelined it home for my nice comfy bed.
Fortunately my husband was home for the worst two days of it and so I turned the care of our spawn completely over to him. Then I realized one afternoon when Cameron came home wearing a red and blue jersey along with blue plaid shorts that it was Picture Day. I can just see the cameraman now: "here comes another child who's mother obviously pays no attention to what he wears in the morning." The one day out of the year I didn't do my kids hair. The one day.
Oh well, what else are retakes for?
So my nyquil-induced comas have kept my nights relatively pain-free, but during the day I've been getting awful headaches. Horrid debilitating if-I-hear-that-door-slam-one-more-time-I'm-gonna-come-out-swingin' headaches that are only eased by going back to bed.
I am getting a bit better--my voice isn't sqeaky any more and I can finally breathe out of my nose, but this smoker's cough I've somehow contracted...it racks my body and sends me into confulsive fits. It's fun.
I had to cancel volunteering at the school last week, I couldn't take the kids to the carnival last Friday night, and last night I missed out on a get-together with family. Bleh...I hate being sick. I have to get better, because I have a mini practical in class tomorrow and am the piano accompaniment for a special musical number Wednesday at church.
Head cold, you will not be the boss of me!
Last year, I met (online) a new friend named Stephanie O'Dea. She is otherwise known as the Crockpot Lady. She's the crazy person who decided to crockpot a meal every single day of 2008. And her family is gluten-free on top of that! Can you believe her gumption? Her ambition? Her insanity? =)
Over the year, I'd comment on her blog and occasionally dabble with my slow cooker--remember the ol' brownies in a crockpot video? How about the peanut clusters one? (yeah, that's me, I only use my crockpot for desserts) But I did get plenty of ideas from her site which did inspire me to ask for a new crock last Christmas, which I got, and have used twice.
But I digress.
Anyway, so she became my online friend. She's even the one who introduced me to blogher and the lovely ad network you see pictured to the right of this post. Stephanie, other than being an amazing cook and ambitious goal-follow-through-er *grin* not only wrote a cookbook this past year from all of her experiences, but she's also"slow-cooking baby #3" which is due in December. Busy much??
She was sweet enough to include my blog in the acknowledgements in her book AND send me a free copy! How cool is that?! Seeing my blog site so official in print is a kick in the pants I tell ya.
So go check out her current site, Totally Together, her 2008 Slowcooker Challenge Site (using her crockpot every day for a year) and order her book, "Make it Fast, Cook it Slow" off Amazon.
Then you can look like me. (not that you'd want to, and sorry about the hair, I'm actually rip-roaring sick right now and I'd just gotten out of bed to take this picture)
First of all, let me wish a very happy birthday to my hubby. He is now as old as I am. He loves that for 31 days a year he gets to be a 'younger man'. Back on even playing ground. :) Love ya, babe.
We celebrated by ditching him and going up to my parents' home in Utah for 4 days (he was working lots of OT while we were gone). There used to be a time that I would never consider taking my 3 kids to the post office by myself, let alone a 7 hour car ride and vacation in my parents' very breakable house for four days. But they are a bit older (meaning my kids, not my parents), I'm a bit more patient, and we have a portable DVD player in the car that makes everybody happier, so away we went.
They kept us busy with trips to the park and picnic lunches--
--a trip to a local pumpkin patch complete with little games and rides for the kids and a 40 acre corn maze--
Next up, the petting zoo.
And I kid you not, 2 seconds after I took this picture...
...Ethan got bit by a turkey. He still has a nice little gash in his thumb.
Thanksgiving isn't that far away Mr. Turkey!!
Next up, tractor ride over to the corn maze. The ride was my favorite part of the whole experience!
"Redneck Trampoline"
Grandma kept the kids busy doing puzzles, crafts, playing games, and watching movies.
We also got to visit the temple while there.
And on our way home, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.
So, Vacation-Single-Parent-Style was a success.
But I still want you to come the next time, Babe. :)
This past weekend while I was lamenting not being up in the cool pines of Prescott scrapping away at our annual Scrapbooking Retreat (seriously Barb, we miss you and your hostess-with-the-mostest-ability! Please tell us we can come up again some other time to make it up!) I totally got the bug and had my own little scrappy party of one in my living room. While I enjoyed watching General Conference, I scrapped and scrapped and scrapped.
Ahh....how I've missed it.
Now, beware, any of these that are any good, are lifted. I've decided I'm not creative, I will never submit to magazines or become famous for my scrappy pages. I just enjoy to do it for fun, have it for myself, etc. I'm not really a scrapbooker--I am a copier. And thus, here are my copies. =)
(Don't forget to enter the Cheer and Febreeze contests!)
