Halloween

We had lots of fun and we have way too much candy in this house! We started the evening with a hearty dinner of worms and eyeballs. Yum! Then we had a visit from the FairyFly which was enjoyed by all! then trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with Nonnie(my mom) and then over to Grandma and Grandpa's for more trick-or-treating. We had Spiderweb cake waiting at home, but that will be dessert for tomorrow night. Pictures are in my links. I must say, The Social Butterfly is just one gorgeous girl!

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween. I just think it's so much fun for the kiddos. We do not carve pumpkins anymore as I got tired of doing all the work and painting is much easier for the children to actually participate in and it makes a fun family night. We'll be out trick-or-treating tonight with a Pumpkin Princess, a cute Witch, and a Police Officer. The Cow with udders that actually squirt will be trick-or -treating with friends and causing parents of young children to say "I can't believe teenagers are still trick-or-treating. This is a holiday for little kids." Hey, at least he's wearing a costume!

Bathroom Pictures!!

Okay, I finshed the new valance, so here you go:

Before:

















And after:

Flashback Friday:Halloween

Okay, I'm a little late, but head on over to Karin's if you want to play.

I have lots of fun memories of Halloween with my kiddos, but I have to share a worst Halloween story instead. I was 17, I think, and my evil-stepmonster's daughter was 9. I got elected told that I had to take her trick or treating while my dad and the evil one stayed home in the warm house. Because, you see, we lived in Colorado and it was freezing and snowing on Halloween. And not fluffy stick to the ground snow, but cold, wet, icky snow. And the girl whined and complained the whole time, but would not go home. 2 hours in the freezing wet snow trick or treating. So not fun!

Conference Update

Helpful, considerate, polite, hard-working, fun, social, has lots of friends, the report card speaks for itself, a pleasure, I'm so glad he/she is in my class, lots of fun, laughs at my jokes when the other kids don't get them, respectful, deep thinking. Could I have asked for better conferences? I tell you, conference day is one of my favorite days of the year!lol! It's awesome when other people think your kids are as wonderful as you do!

Feeling Better

My house is coming back together a little bit. The bathroom is finished with the exception of two minor touches. I need to make the valence for the window since I couldn't find anything I liked. I have the fabric so hopefully I'll find time to make it today. And, I need one more picture for a shelf. I have something in mid, just need to find it. I did take a bath in my new 6 foot tub last night. It was amazing. I had to lay all the way down and point my toes to touch the opposite end and I was floating! Very cool. One minor problem that will hopefully get fixed soon, the jets didn't work. They worked when the plumber was out a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully it's just some minor problem we can't see.

My new double oven and microwave were delivered and look gorgeous with my new cabinets so now we're waiting on the dishwasher, blinds, paint, fan and lighting, and countertop. It should all be in place by the week after Thanksgiving and Mike thinks he'll be able to have my other bathroom done by Thanksgiving as well. It's a MUCH smaller job than this first one.

On a note about making some money instead of having it fly out the window, I listed my old oven on eBay. My girlfriend has the same oven I did and hers has been sitting in her driveway for 2 months with a for sale sign on it. She's asking $125. I listed mine for 7 days on eBay for local pickup only and it sold last night for over $150! Woohoo! The people have paid already and will pick it up this week. I love it!

Picture of the renovated bathroom as soon as I put on my finishing touches!

Report cards and conferences

All three of my school aged children got report cards this week. Three amazing report cards, three amazing kids! Conferences for the younger two are today but when the lowest percentage grade to be seen is a 95% I'm not too worried!lol! And the Teenager deserves his own kudos. Bravo! My understanding is that sophomore year is pretty challenging, but he's so far showing no sign of difficulty. Another quarter on honor roll!

I never thought

I would ever be grateful to be doing dishes but the lack of a sink for two days has made me so happy to have my sink back. I just loved the hot water and soap on my hands last night. It actually was very relaxing. Go figure!

I've been Ghosted??

This is a disgusting picture, but a fun little game. I've been ghosted by my good friend Karin. Visit Liz for the rules. I'll be ghosting Rochelle and Janet. Have a happy and safe Halloween!

A Little Sneak Preview

A little peek at the bathroom and kitchen. The kitchen won't be done for a while as the countertop takes several weeks, but I'm hoping the bathroom will be finished by the weekend!

Why I love having four kids...

we get the entire first appointment at the dentist's office so no one can hear the Princess screaming bloody murder when they try to clean her teeth.

I can see the light

at the end of the renovation tunnel. Some of my cabinets are installed and they are gorgeous! My bathroom is being painted tonight as the paint all over my hands is testament to, and some of my furniture is back in place. I can breathe again...

"Mama?"

"Yes Princess?"
"You're my bestest friend in the whole world!"
::::Mama melts into the bed::::

What happens...

when you wait until the week before Halloween to go costume shopping? No Obi-Wan or ANY Star Wars character. But, that's okay because the Policeman costume came with handcuffs! He's one happy boy...Hey has anyone seen The Princess???????

Chaos

I like things the way I like them. My house is not pristine but it is organized chaos and I can function that way. Right now? My house is a disaster due to two rooms being renovated. We have one bathroom for 6 people! My bedroom has all the stuff from the other bathroom in it. There are kitchen cabinets in my living room. My entryway has a vanity and a medicine cabinet and countertop in it. Everything from my kitchen is in the dining room. I am going crazy! I know it will all be beautiful when it is finished but I'm about to lose my mind!!!

Flashback Friday:Birthday Memories

Head on over to Karin's to play...

Here's my birthday memory...

Mark and I had been debating for a while whether or not to have a fourth child. I wanted one more baby and he wasn't sure. We were religious about birth control always. Except one night...New Year's Eve 2000. It was one night though so he was sure nothing would happen...
I knew immediately that I was pregnant. I mean from January 1st I was certain. But, I remained silent.

My birthday is January 13th. Mark was working that day, but we were going out to dinner with his parents and the whole family that night. Early in the day I took a HPT. It was positive within seconds. All day long I mused over how to tell Mark. I am not good at keeping a secret. With the first baby I called him at work!lol! Anyway, I finally wrote him a poem about our family expanding and attached the HPT to the poem (weird, I know). He came home, we went to dinner, I never said a word. So I had this big secret and all these people who would be so happy and I said NOTHING! Really big for me! When we got home that night, we put the kids to bed and then I gave him the poem. I watched him read it. His eyes got bigger and bigger and he looked at me and back at the poem and just had the most incredulous look on his face. We were both thrilled and almost 8 months later(minus one day) we gave birth to our Princess. Now that's a birthday present!

It's that time of year...

Today I will drag out the storage boxes of kids clothes to go through and see what "winter" stuff still fits and clean out dressers to make room for the warmer clothes. It's actually a lot of fun, in particular, I really enjoy looking through the clothes for The Princess since most of them were worn by The Social Butterfly not too long ago. And whatever doesn't fit gets sent to Baby Girl.

In other news, The Social Butterfly will be playing the part of a Leaf in the upcoming version of The Snow Queen. It's a fun part and she gets to be on stage for a really long time! That's good because if I have to sit through 4 shows I want to see my kid as much as possible!

The kitchen cabinets sitting in my living room are beginning to cause me great distress. Nothing to be done about it, but I will be so glad when they are in. Then just another 4-6 weeks after that for the countertop. I may die.

Walking with my friend is so much fun! I love that we get that time to actually have a real conversation although this morning she didn't get a word in edgewise. I couldn't even breathe I was talking so much. I hope she doesn't feel like it's always me doing all the talking!

I've been trying to teach Baby Girl the princess wave since she started waving. She's got it down! Waving like the royalty she is!

We'll be painting our pumpkins this weekend. None of my kiddos like to touch the inside of the pumpkin so we've just made painting our family tradition.
As far as Halloween, the Social Butterfly has not decided what she wants to be yet. The Princess is dressing as a Pumpkin Princess. Very cute! Can any of my real life friends guess what The Future Engineer is dressing as?? You must know...Here's a hint...He's his father's son for sure!lol!

Stuff

First of all, go on over and wish my friend a happy birthday!!

We have walls in the bathroom!! Well, almost. We should be painting soon and waiting for the marble for the tub surround. While we're waiting for that, they'll be installing my new kitchen cabinets! Changes everywhere around here. It's fun, but I'll be really happy to have my house back.


It's cooooold this morning! well, cold for here. 53 degrees and I have no pants that fit! I'll be shivering outside in shorts this morning. I need to go shopping!

Prayers for my sister-in-law please. She's going through a rough patch right now.

Busy Weekend!

Friday was the date night of course. We went to dinner and a movie and stayed out all night! Saturday after breakfast we came home and our new kitchen cabinets were delivered! almost 2 weeks early! Woohoo! Of course, now I have 12 huge boxes in my living room. The kiddos are anxiously awaiting the use of the big boxes to make a fort. Saturday evening was the monthly scrapbooking extravaganza! I got a lot accomplished and had a great time with my friends and The Social Butterfly and Baby Girl! Yesterday, the mom of the baby I care for asked if I could bring my girls to the school where she's taking her photography class and she took some great pictures of my girls. Then we went to Home Depot and ordered our countertop and bought a new sink and paint for the new bathroom. Then of course, church and getting ready for the dreaded Monday. The kiddos were very hard to wake up this morning.
So, good weekend, busy but fun! How about you???

Going Away

Well, just for the night. Mark and I are having an overnight date night. Hooray. We're only staying a mile or so from our house, but that means I get to sleep past 7 AM. Woohoo!! And that my hubbie and I get some much needed kid free time.

Ha!

You only got rid of me for one day! I'm sure you've been waiting with bated breath to see what I'll say next!lol!

My psychologist was trying to figure out why I'm in such a funk this week and one of her theories is that the Teenager is on Fall break this week, but I'm not seeing him much as he's off with his friends. While I don't know if this is why I'm feeling down, I do know that mothering is so hard for me. I've talked before about how intense The Princess is, well, she gets that from somewhere...I have a very hard time letting go. I hate it when the kids are at school, I hate it when they are gone from me. I really don't like so much to be away from them. When I see my kids waiting for me in the pick-up line at school, my heart beats faster. When I see the teenager walking to the car from his school I get tears in my eyes in a "Thank God he's okay, I'm so glad to see him" way. I always feel like nothing can happen to them if they are with me. I don't want them anywhere else. So, to get back on point, the growing up thing is incredibly hard. I miss my boy so much. And, after a pretty painful year or so, he's actually so much fun to be around again and I just want things to stay as they are. I don't want the kids to get older or bigger. I want my life to stay the same as it is RIGHT NOW. I mean, I'm sobbing as I write this just thinking about the kids getting older... I think I need professional help.

I'm

in a really bad mood. Feeling all funky and down. So, if I seem to be MIA for a day or so, that's why. See you later.

I love

Monday holidays! No school today. And, my kids' school is so awesome because they always do teacher inservice on the Friday before a Monday holiday so we get a four day weekend. How cool is that?

You Have Got to Be Kidding Me

That was the most oft uttered phrase last night as Karin and Mike, Janet and Pat, and myself and my hubby introduced Rochelle and Jared to the hilarity that is Taboo and Pictionary.
Now, I must say the fact that they have reached the ages of 19 and 21 without at least playing pictionary seems a crime to me! Anyway, I can't speak for anyone else, but I had so much fun. I cannot believe that the boys won Taboo. That is only the second time ever that the boys have beat the girls. I won't make excuses but will say that we will get them next time! This cannot happen again! As far as Pictionary, Mike and Karin are the clear champions. Next time we're splitting them up so someone else actually gets a turn!
Good food, good friends, lots and lots of laughter. Isn't this really what life is all about?

So Not Fair

I'm the mom. So, I set up social activities for the family including slumber parties. BUT, I am supposed to be able to go to bed during said slumber parties. Mark is supposed to get late night duty and I take the morning shift. He's working tonight. Did I know this when I set up the slumber party? No! Can we switch shifts so he gets up in the morning? No! Why not? Because tomorrow is his birthday!

I am tired and grumpy!

Girls are Mean...

Why are girls so mean to each other? I mean really. They start in elementary school and seem to continue through the mothering years. Boys aren't like that. Or, if they are mean to each other, they have a fight and are done. They're buds again the next day, but girls can be evil.
The Social Butterfly is a nice girl. I mean, really sweet, good tempered, friends with everyone. She has two very best friends (who are making an inordinate amount of noise in my living room right now!) and many other friends. Tonight she was at a birthday party of another friend with several girls from school. One of these girls is a bitch. I've known her since she was in Kindergarten and you could see it then. She's always been a"mean girl". For some reason, my daughter was fascinated by her and has been good friends with her since the beginning. I've never really voiced my disapproval of this girl but I've done what I can to encourage other friendships. Well, tonight the Social Butterfly learned a hard lesson. The bitch was mean to one of the best friends. To the point of making her run away crying. At a birthday party. And then when asked to apologize was even meaner. And I learned something new about my daughter. She may be nice, but she's fiercely loyal. I don't think I'll be needing to worry about that bad influence anymore.

In the Middle of Nowhere

The Social Butterfly had a birthday party to go to today. I, being a modern mom, have no need of spoken directions. I have MapQuest! 20 minutes before the party started I got on my trusty computer and looked for directions. No such luck. I could not get directions! I had to look at the city map and figure out how to get there! What is this world coming to??!!

Flashback Friday: Dating

Join the fun over at Karin's.

It was a dark and stormy night. Their eyes met across a crowded room. Oh for gosh sakes, I don't know what to write about. I guess I'll go with my very first date. I was 14 and a freshman in high school (my children will not date until they are AT LEAST 16!lol). I was a drama, speech, chorus, student council geek and he was the star of the JV basketball team. I don't even remember the circumstances under which he asked me out, just that I had a crush on him and had heard that he had a crush on me. What I do remember is that we went to the movies and saw the blockbuster hit...Two of a Kind. His parents drove us to the movies. We did not speak the entire ride there. We sat quietly through the movie and his parents picked us up afterwards and the three of them dropped me off at my house. We barely said goodbye and he certainly didn't kiss me, not in front of his parents! I mean, we were 14. Anyway, we went to a dance together a week or so later and I, being a total flirt in high school, ended up dancing with too many other boys to make him happy and we broke up. A tragic ending to a brief and tortured romance...or something like that...

Renovation update...

Mike has been working hard over here! The tub is in and I got to see it working yesterday. Now if we only had some walls...lol! This picture is not giving very good perspective as the tub is 6 feet long and it's really hard for me to get the whole thing in the picture. It looks so small here, but it's huge! I can't wait to take a bath in it!

Anyone else?

Is it just me or does anyone else think call waiting is rude?
I have a friend I've known for 18 years now and we speak about once every couple of weeks and she always leaves at least twice during our brief conversations to take other calls. Sometimes she doesn't come back. I'm about done with that!

New Look!

Hooray for Karin who designed my new space! Her first design. Isn't it wonderful?!!

Fun Stuff!

Work on the renovation of our bathroom began yesterday. At one point there was a pile of dirt in my bathroom and a big tub in my family room. Both of those things have been moved now thank goodness. The photo above is Mike getting the old tub out.

I have a crush on you...

I have a secret crush. It had been going on for several years, but then waned a bit, but as of last night, is back in full force.

When we found our church, about 11 years ago, we decided to stay there because we liked the music better than any of the other churches we had visited. We found a Mass we were comfortable going to and were happy for a while. Then we took our son to VBS the first year. And I heard a different voice. A really fun one. and I wanted to hear more. So, we went to a different Mass where this voice sang and my crush began. I would go to Mass every week hoping this voice would sing alone. Sometimes it did, sometimes not, but I always hoped. This went on for a couple of years. Then, I went to the RCIA class and there was the owner of the voice! I got to know the voice a bit and asked about joining the group because I sing a little as well. I started singing with the voice on a regular basis and became very good friends with the owner of the voice. Actually best friends. I heard the voice a lot, but I hear it in rehearsal and in performance and the voice, while still lovely, had lost some of the magic for me. Until last night. The voice that I fell in love with is back and with a vengeance. Bravo my friend!

A Letter to a Hero...

Dear Mr. Bus Driver ,

I cannot imagine how you are feeling right now. A simple trip of taking a group of high school kids to a retreat has turned into what I am sure is a nightmare for you. A normal work day has turned into an evening you'll never forget. I don't even being to comprehend what you must be going through. Two people are dead. This was a tragedy. That being said, I must tell you, Mr. Bus Driver, that you are a hero to me. Because you followed your training, because you did not do what would have been instinctual to many of us, because you did not swerve to try to avoid the car, my son is still living. Had you swerved, the bus would have most likely tipped over. The bus that was carrying 46 teenagers and chaperones to a retreat might have ended up turned over on it's side. We might have lost many more lives. I am deeply sorry for the family who lost their family members. They are suffering deeply right now, I am certain. But you, Mr. Bus Driver, you did everything right. You saved many lives and prevented many more broken hearts.

God Bless You,

A Grateful Mom

5 things

Karin tagged me for this(although I stole some of her answers) so here goes:

5 things I plan to do before I die
1. Celebrate my 50th wedding anniversary
2. Go to Paris.
3. Make a wedding dress for a daughter or granddaughter
4. See my grandchildren and great-grandchildren
5. Finish my degree.

5 things I can do
1. Sing in front of lots of people.
2. Sew clothing and home decor items.
3. Make great lasagna and chili!
4. Make people feel loved and welcome. I'm a great hostess!
5. Listen

5 things I can't do
1. Pack a suitcase well!
2. Hide my emotions.
3. Keep my house clean.
4. Drive a stickshift.
5. Be patient.

5 things that attract me to the opposite sex
1. Intelligence
2. Sense of humor
3. Strong work ethic!
4. Good parenting
5. The desire to make me happy!

5 things I say most often
1. The Princess' full name!
2. Neato Mosquito! (I'm a nerd!)
3. Cool!
4. That sucks.
5. People are stupid.

5 celebrity crushes
1. John Cusack
2. Johnny Depp
3.
4.
5.

5 people I would like to pass this to
1. Janet
2. Rochelle (who was Karin's tag but she hasn't done it yet!)
3. anyone else who wants to play!
4.
5.

Date Night

Hubby and I had a date night last night. We had tried on Friday night but were only halfway through dinner when we got the call about the bus accident. So, we tried again last night. We had a lovely dinner with an actual uninterrupted conversation! Then we had some time before our movie so we went to Home Depot to order some new appliances for our kitchen. It's amazing how romantic picking out an oven can be! But, seriously, it's so much fun picking out the stuff for our new kitchen. Then we saw a totally cute movie, Just Like Heaven. I love Reese Witherspoon. I just think she's adorable. I did figure out what was going to happen in the movie really early, but it was still a sweet little love story. All in all a really fun night alone with the love of my life.

In other news, I was deeply saddened when we got home to hear of Lady's passing. She was really a sweet girl. She'll be missed.

In happy news, Happy 10 month Birthday to my goddaughter. I can't believe she's 10 months old already! Time flies when you're watching angels grow!