Pumpkin Patch

Well sort of - I got to work in Lucas' preschool class today - it was actually very nice - there were only 8 kids today (normally there are only 9 for 3 year olds) so it's all very tame. It's very cute - they don't take the 3's TO the pumpkin patch for a field trip - they bring the pumpkins to the kids - it's so cute because we basically threw down a bunch of pumpkins and gourds and indian corn, and they get to pick one. No fuss - takes all of 5 minutes then pictures. You can't beat that!



Ms. Lyn cut open a pumpkin for the kids too - notice Lucas' hands strategically placed behind his back so they won't get dirty - hmmm, wonder where he gets that from????


So that was my day - we then continued our special day and had - don't tell Mike - McDonald's - my insides are already screaming. Then came home and watched Backyardigans...."super spy!!!" you have to sing it, not say it.

The boys came home did homework, then football, Tyler had dance - it was actually a very easy afternoon for once. Only small bits of crying and wailing - just kidding - it was very pleasant and calm surprisingly.

Tomorrow a couple of Dr's appointments - the kids all had their physicals this week - 5 trips to the doctors by the end of the week - why don't they let you take all the kids together?? Well, I can see why not for the girl/boy thing but oh well....

My chore chart/reward system is working really well - and I have a register for the points/allowance portion - so I don't actually have to shell out the cash right away - good thing too! Yea Me! But the next thing to work on is the tattle-telling, picking on purpose type stuff... one thing at a time!

Good News

Well first I have to start with bittersweet news - my mom left for home yesterday - the kids were very sad - but I'm sure my mom was happy to get home to my dad and her own house. She was here more than 2 weeks or was it 3? I've lost count. When my mom comes here we eat lots of Chinese food - then we have a hiatus and then I crave it again..... I'm happy to report she did the drive back to Vegas in good time and safely! Yahoo! Good job mom!

My in-laws are coming back again in a couple weeks too - yes, I do have a revolving hotel here - I keep a candy dish in the guest room for tips - but the good news is that they are coming by request to watch the kids - Mike is meeting me down under!

Humm, I keep having problems posting pictures is anyone else having problems or is it my fabulous new mac????? I have a cute picture of Australia I was supposed to post right there...I had problems all yesterday too - tell me if you are too. But yes, I'm going to Australia because Mike has to work - he's been there twice before so I'm so excited to be able to go - I leave on the 1st - I couldn't possibly miss Halloween!

I also Graduated from Physical Therapy yesterday - I brought the therapists yummy gingerbread cupcakes! My therapist is really cute - she is 24 and just so cute, she reminds me of one those Madame Alexander dolls - just perfect skin and cute curly brown hair - I always think of when I was just out of college and not married and in my career, ah seems like centuries ago!

Well it is raining here today - and it is nice - except poor Chandler was supposed to go on a field trip today - yikes! Glad I'm not driving wet 3rd grader feet today!

Crafty Weekend

Well it has been a very crafty weekend. I'm going to work backward...

Today crashed Linda's ward's Super Saturday - and if you've been following her blog you'll know she's away at a girls weekend with her family! But I've made lots of friends over there since the new RS program so it was fun for me.... Here are a few of the great projects they had - I didn't even have time to do them all because there were so many! But I have a few of my Christmas presents done now so I feel very accomplished! We're doing a mini craft night in our ward - with my accident I couldn't possibly put together a Super Sat - so we're opting to just do a few crafts for the sisters - we aren't doing it until Nov so I have some time...






Friday night we had girl scouts - I'm a Junior Leader and I had 19 of my 21 girls resign - which is pretty amazing since they are all now in 6th grade.... We made these cute gourd candles so it was pretty fun. The girls are working on their Bronze Award which we should finish by this year - quite a few of them want to continue but Tyler will be going to YW in January - I don't think I have the energy to do it anymore. Plus with the boys coming up to Cubs it's a bit too much. It is sad to me the church doesn't support Girl Scouts like they do Boys - but don't get me started :)



Tomorrow is busy too - Mike has an early church meeting, then I have choir, I'm also playing a flute solo in Sacrament - the bad part is they asked me just last week, the good part(s) are - it won't be too hard and since I don't have an accompaniment, if I mess up, no one will know - ha ha! I also started practice for the Stake Bell Choir - it is fun but every Sunday night until Christmas is tough.

Now I'm making pumpkin bread (I made Christina's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies earlier in the week - yum yum!!!) for RS tomorrow. We're having our VT Conference so all of us in the presidency are making bread for the sisters - should be yummy. Well I'm off to tell kids to get ready for bed! Have a great day!

Happy 100!

Wow - this is my 100th post - I wouldn't have thought it back in March when I started-

I've been in a busy cycle lately

Just to start - I must say Middle school is very trying...Tyler is doing a great job - but it is very hard. She wants to get straight A's but - and this is very cute - she'll come home saying, I did great, I only missed one or two answers - but hello - if there are only 5 or 10 questions on a quiz or test - you aren't going to get straight A's honey....

Secondly - my mom is here - mostly to help my grandma but she stays with us - my grandma by the way is home from the hospital which I'm grateful for - she did lose 3 toes however - but she sure is spunky. My mom is a good help with the kids but you know when you aren't on your own it's just a little more to do in your day. (meaning - I can't pass out on the couch on the middle of the day when I want to!)

Third - Mike is still working about 70-80 hours a week - I'm so tired of every night him coming home just to go into the office for a conference call in Asia. So I do all the homework and food and baths and carpooling and.... and...and

Then lastly I'm just crazy with my regular stuff - still 2 days of speech therapy for Lucas, church calling, 2 days of preschool, 2 days of physical therapy (hooray I graduate next Tuesday!) but I did keep my ceramics class - when they fire the last batch I'll bring them home and take pictures and post them. I got to throw on a wheel last week and made a cup! I love it!

Last week is a blur now - I know I had a mall trip, lunch with Linda, bunco, a visit to my grandma and lots and lots of driving of children around - soccer, football, dance, dance, dance.... I must sound like a broken record - but sometimes I feel like writing it out makes it slightly more sane! I hope everyone else is doing well with all their activities!

William Tell Overture

You will love this, my friend sent this to me...

Darn

So I had Bunco at my house last night and got out my cute Halloween decorations and had my camera out and totally forgot to take pictures! Oh well.... we also decided to have a spur of the moment Couples Bunco night on Friday night so we'll see if I can remember to take pictures to post that night.

Today was a good day - my mom & I along with Lucas went to visit my grandma in the hospital - she lost 3 of her toes (instead of 5) and she is doing so well! She is even walking with a walker already - I just hope she continues her good rehabilitation and that her toes heal without infection. She is 85 and is doing really well. Lucas was really good - I brought along those color wonder books and he was thoroughly entertained for almost an hour.

Tonight I got to go to a Stamp Technique class (I sell Stampin' Up! but only to my close friends - just kidding) it was fun - I'm more of a hobbiest and for the last couple years have sold cards in sets for Christmas gifts - so I went to my upline's house for a class tonight - it is always nice to have a night away - except my poor mom was the one that had to watch the kids because Mike just walked in the door at 10pm....

Today is my brother's birthday - My brothers are a bit younger than I am - they don't have kids yet, but Gavin is married - it was hard growing up because I was always the odd man out because I was older and there were two of them - always hard with 3. When my brother first got married they lived in the town just over and it was so fun because he had afternoons off and we could go eat or he'd come see the kids sports on the weekends - but now they live 45 mins away and they work all the time so we never see them. We miss him - like tonight for his birthday the kids would have loved to go out and visit him but oh well...

The chores chart is working out well now into day 3 - they almost fight to do the bigger point chores - like taking out the trash and putting dirty dishes into the sink - it's pretty funny. We'll have to see how it goes...hope all is well!

Oh what fun

We had a busy week - first - here are a couple pictures from Tahoe - my friend Michelle & her new husband Matt. They are very cute together and the weekend was fun.



I have to do a tribute to my very handsome husband Mike - he was teasing me about the whole Colin Firth blog - so here is my man looking quite dashing when we were in Tahoe. Mike makes my life special and I can't believe the life we have together. I love him so much even though I don't show it as much as he does - or let me rephrase that - he tends to be more affectionate, I'm more of 'show love with service' type person. So I show him how much I love him by doing his laundry, taking care of his kids, cooking, cleaning & paying the bills.....but seriously I love everything about him and he plopped right in front of me - literally - in my path - we lived in the same apartment complex, when he was on the landing when I was coming home - he looked so cute I was slightly speechless. We became friends and dated for 2.5 years before we finally got married. We're going on 15 years of marriage - we met on Sept. 1, 1990 - he has it written down in his journal. Mike is the nicest man you will ever meet - he would do anything for you and give you the shirt off his back. It balances me because I think I'm stingy but I so try not to be! So no, it's not his birthday (yet) or our anniversary but I just wanted him to know I love him so....

This is us in Tahoe - I'm trying not to have my skirt fly up for the picture - it was so windy & cold!

My friend Louise left for Italy - I was so sad to see her go, but before she took off she helped me string a few of my Venetian Beads - so now I have a bracelet & earrings!

This is my new attempt at the chores - instead of a grid sheet that I've had for a while I came up with this - the kids can do a chore or pick a chore and the different colors hold different weights (points) some days some of the kids aren't even home so this way if someone is supposed to sweep and they are not home I can still ask a different kid and they'll get points. So far they like it, it's the follow-up on the reward/allowance I need to be more consistent on! I'll let you know how it goes after a week....


On Saturday we had a small belated birthday sleepover for Chandler's birthday - he had the same 4 friends over that he had over from last year - it was so easy, he just wanted pizza, he had his friends bring their Ninetendo DS's and they watched a couple movies and played Game Cube. He didn't want a cake, just cupcakes. They were mostly passed out by 12 then they woke up by 7 and played video games. I made pancakes & sausage and then they went home by 10am so we could still make 1pm church! Easy peasy! No theme, no decorations, just his buddies and they played. Nice.....

MIA

Well I'm still here, barely...things have been so hectic - Mike was in China for 2 weeks - for obvious reasons I don't like to broadcast when he is gone but after he is back seems okay. I always make sure our alarm is on 24/7 and have lots of help from friends. One day I will have to go private too I'm afraid but not quite yet....

It was a tough couple weeks but we made it through. He said it is really congested there - no wonder there is global warming!




He also found the Hong Kong Temple - he missed the last session but he gets points for seeing it anyway. It is built on top of a regular building with accessible floors beneath it. Good use of space I guess!


Mike came home on Thursday then on Friday we left for Lake Tahoe for the weekend - my friend Louise's sister got married - it was really nice - it was really cold already - unfortunately it rained before the wedding and it was very cold so it was supposed to be an outdoor wedding, they had to move it inside - but that is okay - it all worked out in the end. Mike's parents watched the kids so it was nice to get away.


The next morning we had breakfast with Louise & Max - I'm so sad they are going back to Italy next Saturday - our summer was so short together!

The kids have been great - the chore chart isn't working so well - I have to figure something else out.

I have to catch up on all my blogs and thanks hotmama - I've got some good sites to check out!!

Ready, Set......Shop!

Well I had a good day at the mall today - first real time since before my accident - I was sore by the end but drugs are great - I still take 800 mg of ibuprofen.

I went to the torture-chamber for my quarterly treatment (aka - Macy's brow bar) and got my S&M treatment on my face - looks pretty good for not having it done in 3-4 months.

Linda & I met Meressa (get a blog girl) for lunch at CPK and had yummy BBQ Chicken Chop Salads. My mother & father in law came into town - they went to Monterey for a couple days and then came here - which is nice because they always help with all the homework and cooking and bedtime - so nice.

Mike & I are actually going to Lake Tahoe for the weekend - my BFF Louise's sister Michelle is getting married. Michelle is 2 years older than us - so when we were in high school - she used to go to the library (across the street from HS) everyday - so we knew if we wanted a ride home we had to make sure we were there by 4pm everyday! We used to run to make it after our practices or whatever!

Well we have had a super busy week here - I'll fill in more later - but hope everyone is having a great day!

I'd Like to thank the Academy

I'm speechless - I never would have thought I would be nominated!!! Okay, end of my pre-Oscar acceptance speech.

Very fun - Thanks Christina & Linda for draggin' me into this cyber-world - it sure is nicer keeping my hands on a keyboard than shoving popcorn in my mouth every evening. Although - I think I'm getting carpal-tunnel syndrome from all the blog-stalking I've been doing.

It's nice to know there are people just like me out there! You know who you are, wink wink....there are so many really talented & beautiful new friends out there - and it's nice to know we're all on the same ( sometimes sinking) ship.

So here's to all of you - in the words of Sally Field, "you like me, you really like me!" Thank you!

Tag you're it you blogging rock stars! (I have to ditto many of the ones already chosen, so here are some new stars)

1. Jenny
2. Christina
3. Lauralee
4. Stephanie
5. Michelle H

Thanks for all your love on my spot - I always enjoy reading about your days and you always help me with mine!