last chances to enter for the ghoulah moolah! (did that work?)

You have just over 48 hours left to enter the $100 Visa gift card giveaway based on our Halloween Pop-Tarts. :) You can enter on either post, this one where we talk about costumes and Halloween traditions, or this one where Cameron makes a pumpkin patch and I ask about your favorite Pop-Tarts flavor.

Good luck, have a great weekend and Happy Halloween everybody!

we love spirit week!

This is spirit week at school.  We've had pajama Day, Black-Out Day, today is Sports Day, and a couple of days ago we had Crazy MisMatch/Crazy Hair day.  This one was so fun!  Basically we just picked out a bunch of clothes that looked horribly together, mismatched some socks and shoes, and we were good to go! 

Sean's hair was easier to have more fun with because of its length.

    

 

Cameron started with puff balls in his hair, but they didn't stay in, so he ended up with a multicolored bandana on.

 

Ethan's hair is super short right now, and I didn't feel like coloring it, so I wrapped this black scarf around his head pirate style.  Not sure why he's being a 'bat' in this picture, but he actually enjoyed looking like a pirate and kept it on most of the day until the kids in his class kept pulling it off.

dear summer (a strongly worded break-up letter)

Dear Summer (the season, not my friend who lives approximately a mile away from me):

I know it is I who chose to live here in your extreme (and let's face it, sometimes obnoxious) climate, but I'm also fairly certain that the earth has tilted on its axis and it is time to let the fall and winter seasons have a visit. Just a short one, mind you...you'll be back all too soon in about 5 months and you'll come on full-force, I know, but the laws of science say it's time for you to pack your bags.

Like an uninvited houseguest, your time has come and gone. You may now go back to whence you came. You hinted at leaving us this past week, and I got excited. I started wearing long pants and long sleeves...I left my windows open...I stopped using the AC in my car and home, I had accepted your departure. But now, alas, you have come back. 90 degrees tomorrow? Please, know when to say when, Buddy.

I know, I know, you like it here. You are comfortable here. The cacti, roadrunners, dry washes, and Superstition Mountains love you. Squaw Peak, Camelback Mountain, the White Tanks and all their hikers need your dryness. The saguaro are very cozy with you, as are the scorpions and rattlers that I hope I never find in my yard. My suntan will miss you greatly. I get it, you have friends and family that you work very well with. You're preaching to the choir.

However, my dear friend Summer (the season, not actually my dear friend Summer who lives approximately a mile away from me), the rocks, plains, and wildlife of Arizona need a little reprieve. A little time apart. A bit of time away from you so as to miss you, so to speak. The monsoons have vacationed elsewhere and it is time for you to follow. El Nino won't be back for another 2 years, so you need to take a cue from your weather buddies and head south for the winter. The cactus wren, the I-10, and palo verde trees will still be here when you return, I promise. Look at me--see? I'm crossing my heart. I vow, nothing will change.

Please know it's not you, it's me. I need a little time to focus on me right now, and my fall garden. On my childrens' Halloween costumes so they do not sweat in your sweltering heat next Sunday night. We're growing apart, Summer, and I need to reevaluate what makes us tick. I love you, but I'm not in love with you, not on October 26th when my house got up to 82 degrees and my mini-van's AC unit gave out. I'm not ready for a relationship right now, I need to be alone, cooler, and without sunblock on, to find myself again. You want more than I'm willing to give--I'm willing to give you April through the first week in October, but past that, you're just being greedy. I hope we can still be friends, that you'll call or write or send me a little 'what-up' ray of sunshine every now and then, and if you play your cards right, I will welcome you back in April with a swimsuit and a smile.

What do you say, Summer (the season, not my friend who lives approximately a mile away from me)...can we hug it out? And I'll see you next Spring? Late....late Spring?

whole 'nother chance to win $100

Tell me your Halloween traditions over on my review blog!

The comments from this post, in association with the last one (in which Cameron baked and decorated using Halloween themed Pop-Tarts) go into the drawing for $100 gift card from BlogHer.

Good luck!

top ten things on my mind this morning

1. I'm sore. The kids and I attended the city's Pride Day through the ward and we helped clean up and weed out a vacant lot. Lots of bending. . . today my lame leg muscles are sore.

2. Feel like I won't see my hubby for a week--he's doing some annual training in Casa Grande for his Gila River Ambulance job. Much thanks to my brother who lives much closer to CG and will put up my hubby for the night when he's not working his regular night shifts with Southwest Ambulance.

3. My friends are awesome.

4. I have to publicly say it: not all pumpkin recipes are nasty. If you read my blog, you know I pretty much loathe any and all things pumpkiny, harvesty, fall-related, and/or orange. However, CC hit me up with her favorite pumpkin recipes and we've liked most of them quite a lot. I made this a couple of days ago and we all loved it. Yummy yummy pumpkin cake roll.

5. I'm five pounds away from my goal of 115! How crazy is that?!

6. As suggested by a friend, I've been listening to October's LDS General Conference on my ipod and really enjoying it. I find if I have it on while I'm cooking or cleaning, I can completely ignore the fighting of my children and be in a better mood! *giggle*

7. I. Love. Fall. Weather. No more 90s and 100s, windows and doors open, steamy cocoa in the evenings, Dear Arizona, Fall has finally arrived!

8. My garden is puzzling me. Zucchini plants are doing great, as are the green bell peppers that are returning from last season, but my carrots, green onions, and lettuce have done literally nothing. I've replanted every week since the last weekend in September. Looks like its gonna be a limited garden this season.

9. Been playing more piano lately. Falling back in love with the Chess musical soundtrack. Wish anyone else on earth knew about this play so we could gush/sing/jam together.

10. The Progressive spokeslady makes me laugh.

lately uploaded on my ipod

It's been a while, right? Since July?

Here's my latest faves.

"Start a Fire" -- Ryan Star

"Come Back Song" -- Darius Rucker (yes, it's Hootie without the Blowfish. For the longest time I refused to accept his crossover to country just based on principle, but eventually, this song won me over. Good job, Hootie.)

"Just the Way You Are" -- Bruno Mars (I linked to this song a few weeks ago and still stop for this song whenever I come across it on the radio--and it does get played about a bazillion times daily--I just love the beat and the message!)

"Stuck Like Glue" -- Sugarland (the beatboxin' percussion is so fun and addictive)

"Rhythm of Love" -- Plain White T's (just proved to myself I can not spell rhythm without spellcheck)

"I Don't Like Mondays" -- Boomtown Rats (way oldie but goodie from the past, one of the first top-40 songs I ever taught myself on the piano)

"Tuesday Morning" -- the Pogues

"The Finish Line" -- Train

"Fireflies" -- Ron Pope

"Lost" -- Anouk

"Misery" -- Maroon 5

For the first time in a while, I still love just about every one of those on my recently downloaded list... I sing out loud and don't care who's listenin'.

What are you jammin' to?

beauty & the beast - - or, a date night out with my hubby

LOL!!  Sorry, couldn't resist that one.

Yes, we got to go see Beauty & the Beast at Gammage this week!  *love!*  I so enjoy these productions.  So well done and so fun to get out and do something different.

  He.

Me.

We.

Pictures didn't go so well during the show, but here are some lovely stock ones I found online.  :)

  

I really enjoyed it!  We hope to go to Shrek in January and Les Miserables in June 2011 if anyone's interested in joining us!  :) 

ice cream FHE with friends

Except that we got to having too much fun, we forgot to actually have Family Home Evening, but it was still fun!

This was in honor of Dan’s birthday now that he has stopped with the vomit. :) His favorite treat is ice cream, so we had all the families bring their favorite ice cream toppings. Some of the concoctions were a bit bizarre...

Had a house full which means lots of fun and laughs.

cub scout camp out

Normally cub scouts don't camp, but this was a special orientation for new scouts and whoever wanted to go could go.  Cameron had a blast camping with Dad--even though poor Dad caught the flu and was literally miserable all night and made it home the next day just in time to puke.

But let's not talk about that.

Let's talk about pictures!

  Cam immediately made new friends.

 

helped Dad set up a tent.

 

posed next to a totem.

 

 

and made more new friends.

 

  Did some exploring.

 

stocked up for winter.

 

participated in a bean bag toss.

 

and some other kind of game.?

  excelled at archery.

 

and shot BB guns.

Dad stood by and tried not to dry heave all over the little campers.

what's your favorite breakfast food?

I think brekky is my favorite meal of the day. I miss it so much when I am dieting because I usually go without, but man, I love it all...sugar cereals, pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs covered with cheese and salsa, pop-tarts, oatmeal, crepes, sausage, the lot!

In fact, I love it so much that we'll often have breakfast for dinner because there is rarely a day during the week when we have time for a good decent made-from-scratch breakfast. So, this past week for example, one night we had strawberry crepes and bacon (I had grilled chicken breast and an apple!) and another night we had pancakes with cheesy scrambled eggs (I had grilled chicken with a cucumber!). Super yummy, right?

What are your favorite cereals? My top five would have to be:

1) Raisin Bran Crunch

2) Special K Almond

3) Kashi Go Lean Crunch

4) Cookie Crisp

5) a tie between Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Peanut Butter Capn' Crunch, and Frosted Flakes

Though I could easily list a dozen more I loooove!

It's been made aware to me recently that there are also dozens of flavors of Pop-Tarts out on the market now! Most of the latest tend to be more desserty in nature...Cookies n' Creme, Chocolate Fudge, Ice Cream Shoppe, and more. I got to do a fun review on Pop-Tarts and use them in a non-breakfasty way. I'm also giving away another $100 gift card, so if you like breakfast foods and/or money, head on over to my review blog and check out my latest contest.

PS: While there, my Bayer $150 gift card contest is still running until the 21st...enter to win that one too!

redonkulous random ramblings

I suppose I should update.

Though lots is going on, nothing is going on, if you know what I mean.

Hubby's 35th birthday was yesterday--which he worked--so we haven't celebrated yet. In fact, it's been hard to find a time to celebrate at all because by Monday he'll have worked a total of 106 hours in one week! Crazy times. He's had some good shifts, some bad, and just got a brand new partner because his former EMT went on to become a paramedic.

All my boys have been pretty busy with homework. What's the world coming to when it takes a 6 year old over 30 minutes to do homework each night...after being in school 7 hours straight? I just don't feel it's right, but it is what it is. Seriously, Ethan has more than Sean, my 11 year old! Cameron has lots too, but he generally does the bulk of it on Mondays so he gets it done and over with early in the week.

Sean auditioned and made the cut for the Winter Variety Show at the school. He's playing piano and singing a song that I wrote. Which is in a word: surreal. I'm very proud of him!

Ethan's had seriously horrible behavior this week at school--not so much at home, but really really bad at school. We've taken away pretty much all privileges and incentives and are moving on to punishments. It's like a dejavu of Cameron's kindergarten year! Well, I take that back, it isn't really a deja vu of Cameron. By Christmas, Cameron had been to the principal's office nine times, and Ethan hasn't made it once. But he gets his card flipped a couple times a week, and sometimes a couple times a day, like this week!

No scouts for either boy this week, due to one thing or another, but Cameron did have football practice which I'm enjoying more now that I've made a friend in one of the other moms. Just so happens she's Deaf, so we chat throughout the whole practice and pay absolutely no attention to our children. It's awesome. It's been good for my sign language skills...I haven't spoken with a Deaf person since Ethan was born.

I worked and cleaned and read and bought birthday presents and caught up on Season 3 of "So You Think You Can Dance". Ha. I baked pumpkin bread for the first time (thanks for the awesome recipe, CC!), I've got 2 mosquito bites in really weird places (I guess I blame football practice the other night?) and tonight Danny and Cameron are going camping overnight with the Cub Scouts and I haven't planned one thing.

Oh, and I am officially down 30lbs since May, as of this morning. How rad is that?!

But enough about me--how was your week? Do anything good? Got anything planned for the weekend? I think we're gonna have a fun one. Deets on that Monday!

more scrap and stuff!

These two pages are very different, but I had such fun with both of 'em.  I really am a linear scrapper--I like nice neat straight lines and perpendicular corners, clean and crisp.  I love negative space and leaving large holes of nothing. 

But sometimes it's fun to just let loose and let the page take on a mind of it's own.  :)   It's a lot more fun to look at in person--plus I have a big striped orange clip attached to the top left corner that didn't work with my scanner so I had to take it off for this pic.  I so love doodling.  Click on the pic for more detail.

ladies and gentlemen, the scrappy goodness is back!

I don't know what it is about Fall, but it just brings on the need to scrapbook. Well actually, I know what it is. There were a couple years in a row when we did an annual scrappy retreat in the Fall, in which we'd go up to a friend's cabin in Prescott and eat and play and craft and giggle and eat and play some more. I miss that so much. The hosts were such sweet people and it seemed like everyone who attended had a really fun time--and we got so much done! See my posts from Oct 07 and Oct 08 to see what fun I'm talking about! Anyway, for whatever reason, we don't do it anymore and I really need a substitute. :)

Here's what I did this past weekend.

I totally scrapjacked this one--and I wish I knew who from so I could give them credit. Isn't it the cutest design? I got to pull out my dusty ol' sewing machine for this, which always makes me want to use it more. I am such a slow scrapper. I worked on this simple one for over 4 hours, painting buttons and going thru my paper stash over and over because all I have left is patterned paper and I hardly ever use patterned paper. But in my defense, I was single-parenting it that night while Dan was at work, baking rolls, watching "Smallville" with my kids, putting them to bed, and IM'ing at the same time, so I might have been a little distracted. All's good. I'm happy with it.

OK this one looks crooked but I think it's just the way I scanned it.  It's straight in real life I promise!  I'm not so much a big fan of the 2-pagers any more, but some events lead to lots of pictures and lots to tell and show about them.  Christmas is always 2 pages, at least.  Sometimes it takes 6-10!  I'm trying to scale back, cuz the more pics I take, the more I feel I have to scrap! 

This paper line is made by my personal friend Amber Winward, another gal I met online and became instant friends with.  In fact, we just met for the first time in person a few months ago after being only internet friends for years!  She has a new digital scrapbooking company that you should check out--Lollipop Press. She's such a go-getter and super talented!

 

The fun thing about this one is the stars. You can't really see from this picture, but they look really cool in real life. I cut out stars in cardstock, then covered them in aluminum foil. I then swirled blue and turquoise paint around applying it to the stars. After they were dry, I took the wrong end of my paintbrush and scraped off some of the paint so the shiny aluminum would show through. I thought it was rather ingenious myself. :p

 

This 2-page layout has to do with our Anniversary trip to Snowflake in 09 (which means I'm up to March 09, people!  No more 2 years behind! I'm making progress!) I scrapjacked every single detail of this from a gal named Allison Kimball.  I love the circles and the little pops of color.  She used patterned paper on hers, but I sanded and made this paper and the circles from scratch.  It was way fun and I love how it turned out.  Oh also?  This picture makes me want to color my hair.  It was a great slightly reddish color at the time. . .

Just a quick pic to show you what my table has looked like all weekend:

Cameron and I have been crafting non-stop- - in truth, most of that is him.  He's a creative mess!  Anyway, because our kitchen table looks like this, we had to do this for dinner:

 

Which, I have to tell you, was so fun!  Picnic in the backyard!  And good thing, cuz you can see that grape koolaid was immediately spilled and I was able to just shrug it off and say 'let's eat!'   It wasn't that late, only 5:30 or 6, but for some reason my camera's flash made it look like we were eating in the dark outside.  It was plenty light though.

On a side note, the re-uptake of this hobby has completely taken over reading, so my Book Butterfly reviews will be in short supply this month!

gift from a bloggy friend

I was so surprised and excited to receive this beautiful handmade gift from my online friend Angi yesterday! No special reason she made it and sent it to me...just because. :) Angi's from St. Louis; go visit her blog and say hello!

Don't you love the internet? I've made dozens of 'keeper' friends I've never even met! So so sweet.

Thanks Ang! I love it so much! The colors are beautiful. Thanks for being so thoughtful!

junk food bonanza!!

Just look at this spread.

Major junk food bonanza.

One might ask, what is the occasion?

What kind of get together were we having?

(pictured, Cameron's pumpkin patch you will hear more about next week)

How many people were we planning for with this bounteous feast?

(pictured, something completely disgusting for the body but I just can't help it, I love puffy cheetos!)

Surely a dozen or two. . . right?

(pictured, my hubby & kids' favorite, BBQ chips)

Surely half the neighborhood was invited?

(pictured, another one for Mom: my favorite cookies right now, and since the following day I started my 4th round of the HCG diet, I had to make sure to get in one or two of these bad boys. Ok, more like 10. There's some left in the freezer and just typing about them is making me yearn.)

Umm no.

(pictured, our General Conference tradition, cinnamon rolls! I made about 4 dozen of these and shared them with friends and neighbors. I used Pioneer Woman's recipe this time-all but the icing-and they were pretty darn good)

This was all for us.

(pictured, Sean's pick, can't beat M&Ms in any flavor!)

Because it was LDS General Conference weekend (church broadcast on TV in four different sessions Sat/Sun).

(pictured, Ethan's pick, hot cheetos. We are a cheeto-lovin' family really. The kids and I all love the hot ones. Dan thinks we're nuts.)

And we allow ourselves a mega junk food binge!

(pictured, Dan's choice, ice cream with magic shell. Yummm.)

Seriously, it's embarassing.

Don't tell our dentist.