Happy Halloween

Zoe has a Halloween party at her school this morning, so I'm going to go help out. I'm not sure if they're doing anything other than eating goodies, but that's a good enough reason for me to join them :-)

This evening, we'll take the kids to our local mall to trick or treat. I like going to the mall because it's warm, there's plenty of candy, and the kids don't have to wear a coat over their costumes. It's fun to see the other costumes that kids are wearing as well. The girls are very excited that it's Halloween!

What's under the bed?...
This is the last post for this series, yay! Under the bed is looking nice and empty :-)
My cross-country ski boots...I haven't been skiing for a long time because I'm either pregnant or taking care of an infant in the winter.
My baseball glove
Scrap posterboard
Purple and gray cardstock, unwrapped
A 2003 Kittens calendar that I used when I was Young Women's President, so it has all the activities that we did that year. Eleanor is looking at it and wants to buy all the kittens!

Happy Birthday, Leif!

Could it get any more eventful?

One of my fears almost came true last night. I hate to think of the tooth fairy forgetting to leave money for a lost tooth. So, I was grateful when Eleanor needed to go potty around 5:20 this morning. The tooth fairy still had time to put money under Emily's pillow before Emily had to wake up at 6am. Whew!

We've had a very windy weekend here. It was rainy Saturday, but yesterday was dry. We lost our power right after I updated my blog on Saturday, around 1:30pm. I left soon after that with Zoe and Emily to decorate at the church for our Halloween party that evening. At 4pm, we had a pizza party for the primary children and then we had our final rehearsal for our primary program, which we did yesterday. The power went off at church Saturday evening soon after we started rehearsing. But it didn't stay off for long, and we had power for the rest of the rehearsal and for our Halloween party. When we left for home, we didn't know if our power would be back on or not, but thankfully it was.
When the kids and I arrived at church yesterday morning, the power was off again. I pictured us doing the primary program in the dark, nobody being able to hear the children give their talks and scriptures without the microphone working. The power came back on, but then I received a phone call from the primary president saying she couldn't get off Bar Harbor because a power line pole was hovering over the rode and traffic was not allowed under it. Okay...now I am without the primary president and the primary pianist. Can I go home now??? We have a very talented young woman who was willing to play the piano during the program, Great!...but then I start thinking about a song that we're singing that we've done some changes to as far as singing a few verses at a time before the chorus, and we weren't singing the last verse until later on in the program and how am I going to explain all this to her as she's playing the prelude music on the organ, and sacrament meeting is about to start...I hand the task over to our music leader and hope for the best. Sacrament meeting starts, the primary president arrives (yay!), we do the program after the sacrament portion of the meeting, the lights are on, the microphone is working, we're only missing one child, the young woman is doing a great job playing the piano, the children are singing and doing their parts wonderfully, and we survive our 2006 primary presentation. It went exactly the way we wanted it to...once it got started :-)

What's under the bed?...
3-ring binders filled with geneology that my sister completed (bless her heart!)...these will go on the shelves that have been sitting in our hallway for about the last 2 years that are supposed to be up in our bedroom. The time is NOW to put them up (hint hint, Matt :-)

Halloween fun

The kids and I walked in our town's costume parade this morning...in the rain. Usually we just watch the parade, but this year Zoe wanted to be in it, so we all participated. I just have some advice for the clown passing out candy to the children...don't wear a scary clown mask with fake blood dripping down your face and expect the children to be happy to see you and take candy from you.

Full House

My house is full of kids today since Zoe and Emily don't have school today, so the teachers can have an inservice day, and I'm watching a 3 year old boy for a friend. He stayed overnight last night and so far things are going well. It looks like it's going to be nice outside today, so later I'll encourage them to go outside to play. I'm thinking it might be a good day to go on a nature walk to collect different leaves, cones, and other items to make something with. I'll save this activity for when they've had enough of playing with each other or when they ask me for an idea of what they can do.

What's under the bed?...
An empty Easter egg
A Christmas stocking
My baseball hat that I've been wondering where it disappeared to
More old photos and negatives

Innocent curiosity

I went to Emily's school this morning to help out during their special snack time they were having today. A little girl from a different class was in the hall and she asked me who I was. I told her I was Emily's mom and then she asked, "Why is your belly fat?"

Disappointment

Zoe and Emily had a fundraiser that we participated in (we meaning my mom and I!) and the items were available to pick up yesterday at Zoe's school. Zoe was VERY anxious to go get the items because she wanted her prize...for all the hard work my mom and I did for her. The lady had no problem finding Emily's box, but Zoe's box was nowhere to be found, so I had a very sad Zoe with no prize to take back home. She did very well though when Emily got her prize and was playing with it. I told Zoe that by the time she gets her prize, Emily's prize will be old and Emily will probably be crying for a new prize when Zoe's gets hers. I think that helped cheer her up a bit...plus the fact that I let her eat some chocolate. I hope her box is found soon!

What's under the bed?...
Christmas wrapping paper!...I'm glad I found it since I will be needing it soon :-)

Late

The chain of late events started last night when my Arbonne consultant was an hour late to my party. I had the party at my mom's house, and the consultant had a hard time finding it. She had the right road, but the wrong town. We finally got in touch with each other and arrived at the house an hour late. The few guests I had at the party didn't mind the wait since we were snacking and chatting and having a good time without the party part of the evening. Starting the party late meant that we ended the party late and I got home late. I got to bed late, so when the alarm went off this morning, I shut it off like I normally do, rested before getting up like I normally do, but instead of resting for 3 minutes, I rested for 19 minutes, which resulted in the girls and Matt getting up late. They did manage to catch the bus on time and here I sit updating my blog on time, so hopefully the late pattern has ended.

What's under the bed?...
Leftover portrait pictures of Zoe from 8 months to 3 years old, and of Emily from 4 months to a year old...I'll put with my other leftover portrait pictures.
A shoe box filled with computer CD's and disks, which I will have Matt go through.

Rain, rain go away!

I went on a field trip with Zoe yesterday to the Fields Pond Audubon Center. You can learn more about the place here. We ate lunch when we first got there and then separated into groups. Our group stayed inside with another group to learn about different trees, leaves, and animals before having our turn outside walking the trails. When it was our turn to walk outside, we bundled up and started our adventure...in the rain. It's too bad the weather didn't cooperate because there were a lot of neat things to see and learn about, but the wetter and colder we got, the harder it was to pay attention to what we were seeing and hearing rather than how we were feeling. We ended up cutting our walk short and heading back inside to wait for the other groups to finish their indoor time. Most of us were soaked and cold by that point. It was a learning experience...I need a better rain coat if I'm going to be in the rain for more than 5 minutes, and it should be a long coat so the water doesn't drip onto my pants!
It would be fun to go back with our family sometime. There will also be other field trips to this center that Zoe's class will be going on since the school has received a grant to take trips to the center this year for free. Zoe's teacher was in the right place at the right time this past summer when someone told her the center was looking to adopt a school this year, and Zoe's teacher told the lady to check out their school. Zoe's teacher did comment as we were leaving the center yesterday that the rest of our trips to the center will be taken in good weather only...I'm glad.

We have survived 3 nights of Eleanor sleeping without her binky. I put off taking her binky away when she sleeps because during the day, she is so good about taking a nap when she's tired because she just asks for her binky and then goes to sleep. I came up with a plan to buy Eleanor something that she could take to bed to replace her binky, but wasn't sure when it would happen. We went shopping on Saturday for Halloween costumes when Eleanor spotted a stuffed dog that she wanted. I told her she could have it if she threw her binky away. She agreed. I knew she would be less excited about this when bedtime rolled around, so I prepared myself for the crying. She did quite well the first night. I think she had convinced herself that the binky was gone for that night, but it would be back tomorrow. She did ask to go potty a few times and brush her teeth a few times, and it took her a little longer for her to fall asleep, but there wasn't much crying. The crying came after church on Sunday when I brought her in from the car half-asleep and it was then that she REALLy wanted her binky. I put her in her bed and let her cry. She cried, and then screamed that she wanted to throw her puppy away...this of course would bring her binky back. I just ignored her and she finally calmed down and came out of her room to eat lunch. The last few nights she hasn't really cried for her binky, but again it has taken her longer to fall asleep and she insists on brushing her teeth a lot...any excuse to get out of bed! She has done a lot better at bedtime than we expected. So now she is potty trained and binkyless...as an almost 3 1/2 year old should be!

What's under the bed?...

A bucket full of coin papers and foam earplugs
Bubblewrap
A Christmas stocking
A few toys...bugs bunny and a blue heart

Have you carved your pumpkins?

We carved pumpkins Friday evening. Zoe and Emily are experts at cleaning out their pumpkins now, and they enjoy doing it. Eleanor helped me clean out hers, and Matt did Zach's pumpkin. Zach slept through this pumpkin carving experience. Here is his finished pumpkin...

Eleanor picked out Blue from Blue's Clues to be on her pumpkin. I carved her pumpkin...

Emily picked out a cat pattern for her pumpkin, which Matt carved out for her...

Zoe at first wanted the word Boo written on her pumpkin with a bat, but it was a hard pattern and Matt and I refused to do it, so she went with this ghost, which Matt carved out...

Carving pumpkins is always a highlight of the Halloween season for us.

What's under the bed?...
Zion...a fascinating LDS family quiz game. I wanted to take the Book of Mormon questions out to quiz myself, but they seem to be missing. Since this game really belongs to my parents, maybe those cards are at their house...hopefully!

Concerned

This may be annoying to read since you'll have to click twice on the top article and then when you get to the end of the column, go back and click twice on the second article to finish the column, and keep repeating that until you're done the article. I don't know how to make this article fit on one page, and I don't have time to figure it out, if it's possible.



I'm glad the school officials are taking this seriously. I wouldn't want these teenagers anywhere near my children. I'm very interested to see what the school board decides.

On a happier note, my mom treated the kids and I to dinner at the GroundRound last night. The balloon animals the girls got are amazingly still in great shape...usually by Friday morning they have at least one popped piece on them.
Two horses and a frog.
The "balloon man" forgot Zach, which resulted in Zach trying to steal any balloon animal he could get his hands on from the girls. He wasn't too successful, though.

What's under the bed?...
Black yarn
A baby toy
A pullup
An empty watch box, which I'll save to see if I use it to put a present in for Christmas, if not I'll throw it away.

One Word

Recently, I sent out an e-mail to some of my friends that asked them to write one word about me and then send it back to me. Here are the responses I received:
Dependable
Patient
Smart
Beautiful
Mother
Laidback
Patient
Well, that's me in a nutshell :-) I used to think that I was the most patient person...until I had children. They can get to the best of us.
I'm glad people find me dependable. I get very annoyed when others don't fulfill their responsibilities. I was voted the most responsible person in my 8th grade class. It wasn't the most exciting award to receive at the time, but now I appreciate being someone that people can rely on and trust.

What's under the bed?...
It's getting harder to reach the remaining items under the bed, due to lack of space and my expanding belly. But I managed to dig out these things...
A paperback book (Pandemic by Daniel Kalla)
A box filled with Primary sharing time and activity ideas...I'll go through it and keep what I want in our Family Home evening basket or bring to church to keep in the Primary closet.
A family scrapbook (year 2000)
Here are some blury pictures of our family in December 2000...

Got money?

It's payday! Don't you just love payday? I would like it more if more of our money was going to us instead of debt payments. Yes, Matt and I have done very well getting into debt...and now we are doing the best we can to get out of it. I've read many motivational talks about getting out of debt and talked to people about how they got out of debt, but reading this book...

has given me a new perspective of not only getting out of debt, but becoming wealthy as well. I believe the key to the wealth is lesson 3, keeping a portion of everything you earn. This wasn't the first time I had heard this advice, but it clicked this time. The goal is to build a nest egg. Put 10% of your income away somewhere to collect interest. The thought of accumulating money is far more motivating to me than seeing a debt go down, but of course we must do both. There is a line in the book that says, "I can't save that much..." and that's exactly what I am thinking. I wrote down our total income for a month, deducted 10% for tithing, 10% for our nest egg, and all the debts we owe...and that put us $73 in the hole. Do we get to eat? Put gas in the car? Buy other necessities? Not that I can see. So we need to start smaller at this point, consolidate some debt, and think of a way to earn more money...which is another lesson in the book. But the good news is that Matt and I both want to build a nest egg and get out of debt. This morning, Matt suggested that we start declaring our desire for wealth together as a family every morning...which is suggested in the book, only on an individual level. As we talked about this this morning, Zoe asked what wealthy means. When I said, "have a lot of money" she perked right up and was all for this new declaration and plan. I do hope that our children apply in their life what they learn from our experience of getting out of debt, from our teachings of not getting into debt and establishing good financial habits, and having them more involved in our bill paying and financial goals to give them experience with finances.
"Today I decide to be wealthy".

What's under the bed?...
A broken bracelet
A picture that I suspect Zoe colored
Happy Birthday wrapping paper
A box filled with older pictures and negatives...I would like to organize these pictures...someday.

Eleanor's pictures

I forgot to show you Eleanor's finger painting creations yesterday. Can you tell which two are butterflies? Pretty impressive, I think.


What's under the bed?...
A very dusty laptop carrying case with disks in it. We'll give the case away if Matt doesn't want it.

Bridgewalk

Eleanor discovered the "blue game" (finger paints) on Friday, so when Zach was napping, Eleanor began painting.

3 year olds turn finger painting into hand and arm painting!

To make a spot for Matt's boxes of letters on Friday, I cleaned his top shelf in the closet...which lead to digging a box out from under the bed that I have been avoiding...

My box filled with stationary and cards, odds and ends, and letters I have received from my grammie. I wanted to clean it out so I could put Matt's sewing materials in it that I found on the top shelf in the closet. The box turned out to be pretty easy to clean out, which was nice. So now not only is under the bed getting cleaner, but our top shelf in our bedroom is organized and looking nice, too :-)

On Saturday, my parents, the kids, and I went on a bridgewalk.


Our new bridge is nearing completion. I think it will be open for traffic in December and the observatory will be open in the spring.
Click on this paper to see some bridge facts.

Looking at the old bridge beside us

The cables

Looking at our town from the bridge

We watched a boat parade. The sailboat in the lead was built in 1931, the same year the old bridge was completed. There was a young man in the top bucket, which was neat to see.

And here are the kids with my parents. The kids did very well walking, being carried across the bridge. Zoe didn't like getting too close to the side of the bridge, so we walked in the middle most of the time. When we got to the opposite side of the bridge, Eleanor needed to go potty. We headed back to the other side of the bridge where we started. We stopped at a port-a-potty that was on the bridge and Eleanor and I went inside. Eleanor took one look inside the toilet and decided she was not going potty, so she waited until we got back to my parents' house.
I'm glad we got to participate in this historic event. It was neat to see the bridge up close after watching it being built for several years now.

Poor Zach or Poor Zoe?

My mom came over for dinner last night and then after the girls were in bed, my mom and I went out for dessert. Zach was not happy about this. He screamed as we were leaving, and when I got home I found out that he pretty much screamed the entire time I was gone until he fell asleep...

on top of Zoe in the top bunk.

What's under the bed?...

The Idaho Spud box and the Cherry box are filled with letters that Matt received on his mission...I'll find a place in the closet for them.
The Salomon box is empty...I'm sure we had a reason to keep it...Now it's going in the trash.

The wardrobe, haircut, and treasures

I finally dug out all of Zach's fall/winter clothes yesterday. I have a very generous neighbor who has two boys and a baby girl, so every season she gives me clothes that her youngest son has outgrown. It is like Christmas when a new season arrives and Zach has a new wardrobe to wear :-) When I was going through the clothes, Eleanor hollered something to me, and me being busy and not really paying attention just said, "uh huh". Then I hear Zoe in a panic say, "Mom, she's cutting Dora's hair!" That brought me to attention and I went into the living room to see what Eleanor was up to. There were little pieces of Dora hair all over the floor...luckily the hair is made out of yarn so it was easy to clean up. I must say that Eleanor did a fine job on the haircutting. I'm glad she didn't cut her own hair, though!

What's under the bed?...
The Navy guy's missing leg
A play fork
A green fleece blanket...this windy, rainy day could be the day to use it.
A plastic grocery bag with finger paints, pipe cleaners, and a recipe for Christmas Cookie Cutter Ornaments...I'm glad I found this recipe before the Christmas season and not after. The finger paints are still good, I may let Eleanor use them when Zach is taking his nap...we'll see what kind of a mood Eleanor and I are in then.

The lights just flickered so I better post this before we lose power.

Pies, Pies, and more Pies

Eleanor and I made our first pumpkin pie of the season yesterday.

I will make many more thanks to the Pillsbury Refrigerated Crust, which you can see here. Gone are my dreaded days of buying a crust box mix that you mix with water. This Pillsbury crust is very easy and quite yummy. I've never made a crust from scratch, so I can't compare it to that, but I'm quite content to take the crust out of the box, unroll it, plop it in the pie plate, fill, and bake. And I enjoyed Matt saying the pie was the best I've made, and that the pie was perfect :-) Works for me!
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Zoe was sitting in Zach's seat yesterday at the table when I told her Zach needed his seat so he could eat. In a very exasperated voice she said, "Oh! You always ruin my life!"...she hasn't seen nothing yet.

Zoe did make a very wise comment later on in the evening when we were talking about Christmas. Zoe and Emily were looking through a toy magazine that we got in the mail yesterday and they were picking out what they wanted. I reminded them that we are going to Utah for Christmas and they won't be getting as many gifts as they usually do. Zoe said they should pick out 3 things they wanted for Christmas, and then in her wise old age of 7 said, "And don't let us look at any more magazines because then we'll want more." I will gladly take her advice.

What's under the bed?...

A flashlight
A couple of locks
One of Matt's socks
A box with 2 new Family Home Evening manuals in it, which we can bring to church for someone else to use...which is probably the reason we got them in the first place.
A toy Hummer, which Zach is happily playing with right now.

Columbus Day tradition

The ducks got away from Matt yesterday, which left him very discouraged.

We played our "Columbus Goes West" game last night that we play every year during our Columbus Day Family Home Evening. I should have posted this yesterday, but the game is here if you are interested in playing it next year. I would advise printing out extra West cards, it makes the game go faster :-)

What's under the bed?...

A journal jar that has ideas on slips of paper of what to write in a journal...could be my next blog series after cleaning under the bed...
A 3 hole punch which will be much more useful to me in my scrapbook drawer.
Matt's Navy guy who is missing part of his leg...maybe the rest of his leg is somewhere else under the bed???
Floss

Zach is polluting the air, so I better go change him.

Peace and Quiet

Zach is an only child this morning. It's very quiet around here...except for the sound of the washer and dryer going. The girls stayed over at my parents' home last night. Everyone is home from school and work today for Columbus Day. Matt is out duck hunting right now. He was determined to shoot a duck today, since his last few attempts failed, so I'm not sure when he'll be back. He wanted me to go with him, but the overflowing laundry basket was calling my name.

I was doing dishes on Friday when I looked out the window and saw this...



It was the first time I had seen a deer so close to the house.

What's under the bed?...
A penny
A yo-yo top
Some disks for the computer
A Dell documentation packet
A ripped page from my old scriptures...I have a set of scriptures that have many ripped/lost pages from young children getting their hands on my scriptures, and I don't know what to do with them...the scriptures that is. It seems wrong to throw scriptures away, but they're not very useful, so I'm tempted to do it. Any suggestions?
An old explanation of benefits from my hospital stay when I had Zoe...patient balance was $0...I wish that were still the case. *sigh*

Is there a dog in there?

I am 24 weeks pregnant today. I had a check-up this morning and the baby is still doing well. I brought all the kids with me since Zoe and Emily don't have school today, and the girls did very well. Zach was cranky, but I think that's because he is starting to get some new teeth and he was tired. He whined when the nurse was asking me questions and she took my blood pressure, but then he fell asleep when we were waiting for the doctor. But then he woke up when I gave him to Zoe to hold while we listened to the baby's heartbeat. Just like the last time Eleanor heard the heartbeat she said, "That's a dog!" The doctor suggested naming the baby Spot or Rover. Matt and I are still trying to find a name that we both like, but I don't see Spot and Rover being considered.

Zoe and Emily must be missing school because they are playing school right now...or maybe Zoe is getting experience for her future teaching job.

I'm not getting anything out from under the bed today. I still need to find a place for Matt's ammo box, which I found out has geneology in it, so I need to find a place in the house for it instead of out in the shed.

The fun ends...until December

Zoe and I met with her teacher yesterday for a conference. Zoe is doing very well in school as usual. There are no concerns, she just needs to continue doing what's she's doing. I took some pictures of work that she has done that was displayed in the halls of the school...

Click on this poster to see the writing better.


We had our last dinner out with Matt's parents last night. We all went to Bugaboo Creek, including my mom. By the time our dinner came, Eleanor was ready to leave, but overall it was a very pleasant evening. It's always sad to have Matt's family leave when they come for a visit, but this time it's nice to know that we will see them again in a few months.


What's under the bed?...
A plastic ring that I don't think anyone is missing so I threw it away.
One of Matt's ammo boxes that has who knows what in it because I can't get into it...put it somewhere until Matt gets home. To me, it looks like something that could go in the shed...I'm sure Matt will disagree.

Emily is healthy again and is back to school today :-)

I'm back!

Our computer is working again :-) Matt brought home an old keyboard from his office, so now we are up and running here again. Yay! Our phone is working too after Matt got our internet running again.

Emily is home sick today. She came home from school yesterday with a headache. She slept all afternoon and evening and she didn't get up until this morning. She woke up around 4am saying her stomach hurt and we thought that she was going to throw up at some point, but she hasn't. She's feeling well enough to eat now and argue with Eleanor, but I want her to rest a day before going back to school. She said her head hurt all day yesterday, so I can just imagine what a miserable day she had. I'm glad she's feeling better now.

What's under the bed?...
Emily's dress shoe, which found its way under there recently, so I put it where it belongs.
Space...lots of space at the foot of the bed...very exciting! So I dug deeper and found a plastic grocery bag full of old bill stubs, receipts, checkbook registers, bill charts, and cute suzy zoo labels that I can't use because they have our old address on them. *frown*

Be patient with me

Thursday evening...picture Matt sitting at our computer, on the phone participating in a Bishop/Branch President conference call, reaching for a 32 ounce cup of water sitting on top of the computer armoir, and spilling it all over the keyboard. Yup, now our keyboard doesn't work and our phone doesn't work because our vonage router got wet too, I suspect. I am at my parents' home right now using their computer. When I got here, their computer was on and beeping and my mom informs me that she spilled water on her keyboard last night. NO MORE WATER BY THE COMPUTER! Luckily, my mom got her keyboard working and here I am. Until we get our keyboard working or until we get a new keyboard I'm not sure how often I'll get to blog. This has been the hardest thing about not having a computer because I was in such a good routine of blogging every morning after Zoe and Emily left for school.

Matt's parents are visiting from Utah, so we are enjoying their company. My parents watched our kids Friday night while Matt and I met his parents in Portland and we stayed overnight. We ate at our favorite restaurant ~ Norm's East End Grill :-) We drove back on Saturday and watched General Conference throughout the weekend. Today we took a drive and enjoyed the fall leaves. Matt's parents will be here until Thursday, so we have a few more days of fun before they leave.

What's under the bed?...
Friday morning I pulled a plastic file folder out. I haven't gone through it yet, but I think it has old receipts and bill stubs in it that I'll get rid of. I'll keep the folder for scrapbooking.