Friday, March 30, 2012

Some Goings-On at Our House

Arcade Mania: We went to Nickelcade at the Family Fun Center the other day. We're not a big video-game family, but we had fun. The kids especially liked the games that spit out tickets so they could cash in on some prizes before we left.


Children of a King: We had a FHE based on the movie, "Tangled" last Monday. We talked about how we are like Rapunzel, children of a royalty but we are separated from Him and come to a place where we are told all sorts of different things about who we are and what our purpose in life is and what the world is like. Then we get the opportunity to discover who we really are, and when we search in the right place we find out that we are Children of a King. Then we had a "Tangled" maze through the house: yellow yard strung up all through the house. At different points the yarn would split into two sections. One side would have a paper describing a lie Satan tells us in this life and the other would have a truth that our Heavenly Father wants us to know. The lie would lead to a dead end and the truth would lead us further along the maze. We ended up upstairs in the master bedroom where there were crowns for all the kids that said "Daughter of a King" or "Son of a King" along with jewel ring pops (courtesy of my friend who brought dinner over that night - perfect). The kids loved it.



Spring Has Come: The weather has been BEAUTIFUL this past week. We even busted out the shorts on Sunday (and after half of the family coincidentally put on plaid shorts, the rest of us followed). This nice weather has also meant the arrival of "the allergies" (as Ben calls them), and they have hit me like a mack truck. YIKES. I've been taking allergy medicine and using eye drops and spraying nasal spray. This is the worst I have ever gotten them, and I'm hoping my body adjusts REALLY SOON.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

St. Patty's Day


Our St. Patrick's Day wasn't as festive as usual. It landed on a Saturday, and I was headed to Time Out for Women, which ruled out green breakfasts (and since it wasn't on a school day, there wasn't any fun green surprises in kids lunches either). The corned beef would have taken too long once I got home, so we just went out for dinner as a family. I did, however, make everyone change into something green (which paid off - we got 10% off our dinner because of it). And we did make homemade Shamrock shakes for a tasty treat. The next day I cooked the corned beef and made a yummy mint-ice-cream-brownie-oreo dessert. I was going to cook some cabbage and potatoes and irish soda bread when the beef was almost done, but then our power went out. It ended up staying off until 11 AM the next morning. Good thing the corned beef was already cooked enough - we ate that and bread and cheese and cabbage salad. And the dessert, of course. YUM!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

How Thrift Stores Have Ruined Me


I have always been a clothes shopper. I love it. I started babysitting when I was 11 years old, and after putting away some for tithing and putting more away in my savings, I would use the rest to buy...you guessed it, clothes. I am not, however, the department store or trendy store shopper (although I like those clothes too) - I am a deal finder. Always have been. I loved the store "Susie's Deals" when I was a teenager - $5 clothing store (what's not to love?). Then I became a hard core Ross shopper. I know some people can't stand those stores - having to search through rack after rack of clothes to find something you like. But I don't mind it. As long as it gets me a cute pair of jeans for $12.99 then I'm happy. I loved outlet stores and clearance racks and consignment stores. Then I became a thrift store shopper....and now I'm ruined. In the past few years I have shopped more and more at thrift stores, partly because we have some great ones around here, partly because my kids are in school and often come home with holes in their pants (and who wants to keep buying brand new pants just so they can get holey again), partly because we just have more people to buy clothes for.....but the biggest reason, I think is because thrift stores have ruined me. I just don't find the same satisfaction shopping at regular stores that I once did. Remember, I'm a deal finder. How can I compete at a discount store like Ross, let alone a department store when I have (on multiple occasions) taken advantage of a "bag sale" at a thrift store and come home with a bag full of 30 items (for all members of my family) - good, clean items - for $3. How can any other store compete with that? And I've found some great things at thrift stores: name brand clothes, jeans that come in size tall, snow pants and suits, super cute shoes, etc. So now if I happen to wander into a Ross and notice a cute shirt on the clearance rack for $5.99 I go into "debate-mode" with myself, "is this really worth it?" WHAT? Most people would snatch it right up, but like I said, thrift stores have ruined me. That's why today I walked out (of a thrift store, mind you) and left behind a Steve Madden pair of adorable animal print open toe heels because they were $9.99 (easily $80 shoes in the store). Perfect condition Steve Madden heels for $9.99 and I said "no" (I'm still kind of kicking myself for that). See - they've ruined me.

At least my bank account doesn't think so....

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

No More Monkeys Jumpin' on the Bed


Or the trampoline....just kidding. Actually this didn't even happen while jumping. Nathan and Megan were playing on the trampoline yesterday. I was walking by just as the "incident" was happening. Nathan was laying on the tramp leaning over the edge (Megan said he was trying to look under the trampoline). He must have gone a little too far and lost his balance and fell. I went out to console him and was patting his head when I noticed I had blood on my hand. I looked at the back of his head and he had a good little gash. For a head wound it hardly bled at all. I rinsed it off so I could see how deep it was. It was pretty deep and a couple inches long. I called Sean and we piled into the car and went to meet him at the Urgent Care. Nathan cried when it first happened, and then even more when he realized there was blood (HE HE HE - my kids really don't like blood), and then when I said we needed to go to the doctor. He immediately started freaking out and said, "do I need a shot?" After I reassured him that they were just going to do something to stick his owie together he was okay again. He was happy the whole way there and during the entire wait. Sean waited with Nathan while I took the rest of the kids home (it was supposed to be a 2 and a half to 3 hour wait in a room full of sick kids - there was no way I was keeping all the kids there for that long). They actually only waited maybe an hour and 45 minutes, and once they got taken back it went pretty quick. The nurse gave him some topical medicine to numb his head and the doctor gave him three staples (right over his hair - I was thinking they might have to shave his head or something, but they put the staples right over it). Sean took him out for ice cream after (Sean tried to console him with promises of ice cream during the ordeal, and Nathan quickly reminded him of that when they got in the car). He came home and told me all about it and then crashed in his bed (it was instantaneous - head hit pillow and he was out). And he was back on the trampoline this morning.
Caelan and Ben were so tender about it yesterday. They get worried whenever they see bloody injuries like that. There was one point when Nathan was crying, Austin was crying because I had to put him down to take care of Nathan, and Caelan and Ben were crying because they were worried about Nathan. I reassured them that it wasn't too bad - we just needed to go get it sealed together, and they said a prayer for him (all on their own - I love that they do that),and then they were fine.



Adventures of a Monday afternoon!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Too Cute



The Blanket Incident

I smelled an odd burning smell this morning in the house. At first I wondered if it was the space heater that I brought in from the garage to warm up the living room (I thought maybe it had some dust on it that was causing the smell), but at one point I started checking all our baseboard heaters because it just wasn't going away. Then I came into the living room and found some fabric stuck to the heater grate which had burned and stuck to the grate. I realized that's what I was smelling, and then I noticed Megan's special blanket thrown behind the recliner in a pile with a black spot on it. Actually it wasn't a spot, it was a hole. Yep, she burned a hole right in the middle of her blanket - she must have put it right by the heater and left it there. So, that blanket is now a gonner. I guess she'll have to adopt another one of my blankets to be hers (HE HE HE - that blanket actually started out as mine, but at one point she decided it was hers...which it became from then on).

"I do so like Green Eggs and Ham"

"Thank you, thank you Sam I Am."




Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!
And to celebrate we had some green eggs and ham (actually bacon, but it's pork, right). And in honor of one of the "greats" here are a couple of stanzas from one of my all time favorite Dr. Seuss books: Oh, the Places You'll Go:

Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. there are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame! You'll be famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don't.
Because, sometimes, they won't.

I'm afraid that some times
you'll play lonely games too.
Games you can't win
'cause you'll play against you.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

Snow Tunnel


We had a couple of night snow storms in February (snowed through the night and then cleared up by morning). One of the storms also came with a bunch of crazy wind, which made for some very weird snow patterns. We woke up the next morning with about 4 feet of snow in front of our front door, but other parts of the porch had NO snow at all - so odd. There was a crazy little snow tunnel that formed outside our kitchen window from the wind-snow combination.

Love Day


It's now March, so I figure I should probably get some February blogging done. I usually don't do much decorating for any holiday (except Christmas, of course), but I saw some cute (and easy) ideas online, plus I made a wreath at a craft class that my friend does, so I got fairly festive for Valentine's Day. We don't make too big of a deal, but we do do a little celebrating: heart shaped french toast, heart shaped sandwiches in lunches, making and decorating heart sugar cookies, little valentines for the kids, Sean brings the girls a couple of roses (and a dozen for me) and he brings a little toy for the boys, little Valentines treats and notes for Sean from me, Valentine's Day parties at school for all the kiddos, etc. Megan had a performance at her preschool (she really sang out) and then they made banana splits. Fun times. I know there are lots of people that are cynical about such a commercial holiday, but I see it as just another fun excuse to do little things to show love for the people we care about.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Flashback to the 70's




This is an outfit that was Sean's when he was a little tot. We got so many comments on it at church, and really only cute little 3 three year old boys can pull off plaid like this. Nathan loved it - in fact, he wore the vest the next day with some other clothes and he wore the pants the day after that. He wanted to sleep in them one day (I told him they weren't jammy pants).

Here is a cute shot of Ben wearing the same thing a few years ago.