Just Pictures

After my last post I got a lot of "are you okay?" comments.  Yes, yes, we are doing well!  Part of the blessing of a time crunch is that we don't have time to hassle with un-well-ness.  Things are resolved as quickly as possible so that we can go back to enjoying time together when we can.  And there are times when things aren't THAT busy.  Times like these:

And times like these:

And like these:

Purchasing and carving pumpkins AFTER Halloween is much easier on the pocket book.  I think that's our new yearly plan.

And we've had plenty of time to play with our new favorite pet  who is now officially named Cuddles.  There are about 20 billion reasons why a ball python is better than a dog.  Here are a few:

And if you're wondering why it was named a ball python, here's a clue:

Note, that's after we pulled him out of the cage.  He sits like that all the time, and often he'll stay like that for a few more minutes after we pull him out, until the kids prod him into moving.  ...  A ball python, I've decided, is a bit more like a toy than a pet.  Which is fine by me.  Best toy ever!

Little moments of good times hold our family's life together.  I'm determined to be a bit less stressed this term and a bit more focused on creating good moments with and for the kids.  Wish me luck!

Chili Cook Off Almost Fail

Ready for candy.

This year I decided to actually make chili for our ward's trunk-or-treat / chili cook off.  Except I don't make chili, so I looked up a recipe on-line.  It said it was award-winning.  Honestly, I just picked the first one I saw.

I substituted out the beer for apple juice (why not?).  I bought the special hot sauce that it required.  I even bought ground pork, another first (I wasn't previously aware that this was available to purchase).  I came home, and started out on my quest to make some great chili.

After it had been simmering for about an hour, I tasted it.  HOLY SMOKES it was spicy hot!  I thought to myself, "A bowl of that might just kill someone."  I went back to the recipe to see why it was so hot.  My eyes got big when I saw the amount of hot sauce the recipe called for:  1/2 tsp.  Any guesses for how much I actually added?  ...  Higher.  Guess higher.  ...  Remember that I never cook with hot sauce.  Might want to double your guess.

A cup.  I added a cup.  ...  That's 96 times more than a half teaspoon.  ...  After it was all said and done, I called my mother to tell her and she just laughed and laughed.  It turns out that everyone else knows that a cup of hot sauce is a gargantuan amount.

But I didn't want to waste 3 1/2 lbs. of meat.  So I drained off all the liquid, which we kept for future seasoning purposes (taco meat anyone?), and then put the meat back in the pot and re-added the liquid ingredients, except for the hot sauce cause I figured the meat had absorbed quite enough of that in an hour's time.  Luckily I had given myself plenty of time, so it wasn't a big deal.

The end result?  It was delicious.  We got second place, and we're convinced that we only missed first place because it was so good that it ran out first.  People loved it and Rob and I only got to eat the little bit we had before the event.  So we'll be making it again in the next few weeks.  Though without the extra steps.  (Add a cup of hot sauce.  Let simmer for an hour.  Drain the liquid.  ...)

Miciah is 10

Which is totally weird.  Except, it's getting less weird all the time.  I remember, years back, thinking that my kids would never get big.  And now it's happening.  It's awesome, actually. 

10 isn't a Birthday Party year, so we had a quiet family dinner.  Miciah was excited to decorate the house for Halloween "for her birthday."  When she asked if we could do that, I was reminded of my oldest brother, Budge (great name, right?!).  His birthday is mid-December and we'd always decorate the house for Christmas on his birthday.  At least, that's what we did when he was in the house, so he tells me (he's 8 years older than me, so by the time I was remembering stuff, he was mostly gone).  It was special for him.  And now it's special to decorate the house for Halloween on Miciah's birthday.  Fun!  

The kids did it mostly themselves.  They made posters and things to hang from the ceilings.  They took cotton balls and stretched them out so they look cobwebby, and those are all over the living room.  It's pretty cool.  It's festive, yet home-grown.  I approve.

Also, this is a pretty great Halloween decoration, too:

We're thinking of taking him out with us Trick-or-Treating.  Cause apparently snakes freak people out.  I don't understand this, as I think snakes are fascinating, beautiful creatures.  Oh well.  To each their own.

(We did a quick measurement, while he slithered across the floor, and he's just under 4 feet long.  He never looks near that long all curled up in his cage, and he's always curled up.  That's what he likes to do.  Also, he's still name-less.  We're leaning toward Carl Sagan or Cuddles.  He's a very cuddly snake.)

Halloween Weekend

 Miciah as a blue crayon in her school's parade.

Pumpkin Carving

We carved pumpkins on Saturday.  Each of the kids picked what they wanted, and then Rob and I and Rob's mom carved them out.  Elijah wanted a pretty normal pumpkin.  Round eyes, square nose, toothy grin.  Miciah wanted about the same thing.  And Tank wanted an owl.  ???  We are not artists.  This is what Rob came up with for the owl:

Rob finished carving the pumpkin and then turned it around to show his mom who burst into uncontrollable laughter.  Then he showed it to Tank.  He tried to stay positive.  "Look, Tank!  It's an owl!"  Tank giggled and said, "No, it's not."

This is the one that I did for Elijah:

I told Rob that my pumpkin got a "that's exactly what I wanted" reaction.  Rob said, " I didn't hear you volunteering to do the owl!  You drew 2 circles, a square, and a smile!"  True.

Trunk-or-Treat

Elijah wanted to be a skeleton, but then refused to wear the skeleton apron that my mom made for him because "it's not a costume."  Fine.  So for the second year in a row he was a red crayon:  (I took this picture Halloween night, and he'd added the green vampire teeth for effect.  I was surprised that he wore them all 2 hours of trick-or-treating.  Those things are not comfortable.)

Miciah was the little mermaid, I wore the skeleton apron, Tank was the horse (again.  This might be 3 years running.  I don't think Tank has grown during all that time), and Rob was a mad scientist.  People thought that Rob's costume was a cop-out because Rob's a scientist anyway.  But I tell you what, his class at NKU loved it.  He had students taking videos and everything.  Really, what sold the costume was Rob's amazing mad scientist voice.  And then he'd start saying things like, "If you come in the back room with me I will harvest your body parts, I mean, can you help me with an experiment?"  Hilarious.

Halloween

The next night we met up with our neighbors, who are delightful, and did our Trick-or-Treating with them.  Elijah was the red crayon again, but Miciah was undecided about which of her 2 costumes she would wear:  Little Mermaid, or the blue crayon.  She'd worn them both to one event (trunk-or-treat and school party), so when she couldn't decide, I suggested that she wear Rob's lab coat.  Best last-minute Halloween idea I've ever had!  Rob ratted her hair, we put some green food coloring in a test tube, she put on rubber gloves and goggles, and viola!  Mad scientist:

At one point I joked with her that she needed to work on "breaking out of her shell."  She's such a ham.  She loved it.  People who gave her candy loved it.  This is definitely a costume we could use again.

And now...

The weekend is over and I'm serving on a grand jury, which is actually very interesting.  I have to go in every day (except next Thursday which happens to be a federal holiday), but the hours aren't super long.  They TOLD me the hours would be long, but they lied about that.  It's laid back, the lawyer we work with is great, parking is an adventure, downtown is lovelier when the weather is chilly, and I should be home to get my kids off the bus every day.  Sweet!

Right now Tank is with my in-laws.  (Thank you, in-laws.)  I think he's enjoying himself, but he sobbed when we put him in the car to leave.  I'd been talking to him about it for weeks, trying to get him excited.  And he was excited, but I think also a little scared.  ...  Rob was helping him say his goodbye's on Saturday night.  "Give Miciah a hug."  He did.  "Give Elijah a hug."  He did.  "Give Mommy a hug."  "No."  "You don't want to give Mommy a hug?"  "No."  I walked over to give him a hug anyway, and Tank burst into sobs and fell into my arms.  So I did what good mothers should do:  I told him I loved him while I walked him to the car, put him in the car seat, and then walked inside.

October Adventures

Halloween Nights

For Miciah's birthday "party" we went to Parky's Farm for Halloween Nights.  In the past it's been a cute little family-friendly venue.  A magic show.  A hay maze.  A hay ride.  This year, though, they added a TON of stuff, so it was a little more Carnival-ish.  Still fun.  Still family-friendly.

We didn't get many pictures of the night.  Cause it was, you know, dark outside.  Here are 2:

The girl in blue is Olivia, one of Miciah's best friends.  We were glad that she was with us, cause she entertained Miciah.  They spent the entire time doing playground clap games while we were waiting in lines.  It was great.

Maysville, KY

The next day, Miciah's actual birthday, both of the kids had soccer games.  THIS IS THEIR LAST WEEK OF SOCCER!!!!!  Not that I'm excited about that.

After the soccer games we drove down to Maysville, KY.  We took a new route and that was a disaster and I was mad at Rob for over 24 hours.  Over something so silly.  Go me.  But the party there was great.  We took those family pictures you saw in the last post.  And these were our hosts, B and R:

He's my uncle.  He stayed at our house for just under 2 years, so he's our favorite of favorites.  We like it when we get to see them.

This is my mom with 3 of her siblings and her father.  A nice family resemblance, right?

B and R made some excellent food and a nice cake for Miciah.  Usually she gets about nothing for her birthday, so she was thrilled to be the center of the show.

Fall Hike

The weather has been AMAZING here, so we took my Mom on our annual Fall Hike.  We go to a beautiful local park and go on a half mile hike.  It's perfect for the kids and their abilities / attention spans.  This was the near-continual view of Elijah:

And again:

I have more, trust me.

Every year we whistle with acorn tops.  Miciah wanted to make a video to explain how it works.  Here it is:



She also tried to teach this trick to everyone she saw.  It's a neat thing, and it's super easy to do, actually.

Here's Elijah with his shirt full of acorns and acorn tops.  The boy has a collecting fetish:

We also do Billy Goat's Gruff every year, on one of the many bridges.  This year I decided to get it on video, since it's such a fun family thing.



Cute, right?  (Yes, Tamra.  It's super cute!)

I have a ton more pictures from the day.  This was one of my favorites:

Tank, throwing a fit because we wouldn't pick him up.  I actually accidentally got it on video, cause I didn't realize my camera was on that setting.  I should post it, cause it's so obvious how fake the crying is.  Seriously.

Monkey bars!

Etc.

Blue Tongued Beauties

Miciah tried on the blue crayon costume on Halloween.  Then she put on the red hat and said, "I'm a red crayon in a blue wrapper!"  She loved that her blue tongue matched her costume.

Elijah loved it too:

I suppose it's time for another Update

Life has been pretty normal feeling since I've been back from Key West.  (More and more I'm convinced I actually went.  I have tickets to prove it and everything.)  Life here is SO not a day at the beach, but that's a good thing, I guess.  Too much of nothing is ... a song by Peter, Paul, and Mary.

Soccer

Soccer is over.  Hurray!  It was so draining on our family.  I don't know how my parents did it with 8 of us playing nearly year round.  I was wiped out after 2 months.  Here are their official pictures.  It's probably illegal to scan them in, but whatever.  It's not like I'm re-selling them for profit.

 

 

 

 Miciah's coach and her daughter forgot about the pictures and hence missed them.  So I look like the awesome Head Coach in this picture.  One of the moms took a picture of all of us at a later game.

(Oh.  The team that was letting Miciah practice with them on Thursdays is going to State.  They've only lost 1 game, during the season.  Wouldn't surprise me at all if they came home State Champs.)

Miciah's Sleepover Party

Miciah had her 8th Birthday Party the day before Halloween.  I don't know how this came about, but Miciah somehow believed we'd told her that for her 8th birthday she could have 8 people sleep over.  I recall no such promise, but I figured it would be fine.  And it was.  There were 10 girls who came, but only 4 slept over.  Their moms were all apologizing for them not being able to stay, but I told them, "Trust me, it's OKAY."  :)  4 girls sleeping over is much more manageable than 10.

Miciah got lots of gifts, including lots of crafty things to do.  One of those was a gift called Bendaroos.  I wasn't even aware Bendaroos existed, but the girls had a blast with them.  For instance:

Rob also loved the party atmosphere.  He was the life of the party and directed them through several games.  I'm sure they all went away thinking he was the coolest dad ever.  Part way through the night Rob said, "Tamra, you're missing it."  And I said, "Exactly."  I'm not really a party person (I'm sure this is shocking news), so I was happy to make myself scarce.  I even attended my soccer game that night (we had Corene come as a woman stand-in, just so Rob wouldn't be alone with 10 girls.  I didn't want there to be any room for suspicion, even if I personally think Rob is above suspicion).  How's that for priorities?

Halloween

We kept things simple for Halloween.  Our October had been full of so many celebrations that I was pretty Halloween-ed out by the time the day actually came.  No annual festive meal in a pumpkin, no pumpkin carving, no elaborate anything.  Course, it shouldn't surprise anyone that I wasn't super festive.  We did put up a cool spider web on our front porch.  This made Elijah happy cause he'd told me that he "hated our house" without decorations up.  That's pretty intense.  He'll probably make his house uber-festive when he grows up, as a reaction to my anti-festive spirit.

Elijah, pretending to be "caught" in the web:

And Rob and the kids standing proudly inside the web.

Can you tell what Miciah was?  Rapunzel.  She came up with the outfit herself.  I tried to talk her out of it, or at least talk her into making it more, um, elaborate.  Her long hair, which you can't really see in the picture, was an ace bandage.  You know, the kind you'd wrap an ankle with.  She was CONVINCED it looked just like real hair.  She tied it into her hair and it flowed all the way to the ground.  Pretty cute.

Elijah's costume made me especially happy.  This is the costume my little brother Chad wore when he was a kid.  Behold the picture:

It's Ruben in green, me in pink, Justin in blue, and Chad in red.

We have the blue crayon costume, too.  So next year he could be a crayon again, if he wanted.

And yes, my Mom made those.  Pretty sweet, huh?  My Mom is good.

Teancom was Super Man, which meant he wore his Super Man pajamas and we added the cape.  He wore the cape for several more days, including to church.  It was awesome to see him all dressed up and wearing a cape.  At church I took him to the bathroom and he looked at himself in the mirror for several minutes.  He furrowed his brow, looking as serious as possible, and stood with legs apart and arms folded.  I wish I had a video of it.

Here's all the kids right before Trick-or-Treating.  We went with friends:

Chad

Our family took a short day trip to Columbus to see my brother Chad who came in town to visit a friend.  Yes, Columbus is "in town," cause he normally lives in CA.  The kids jumped all over him, demanded his attention, and said, "Uncle Chad!" about once every 30 seconds.  I think Chad liked it at first, but you could see the glazed-over look in his eyes after a while, and we partially convinced the kids to stop mauling him.

Though Elijah kept calling him Uncle Keith, even after we told him repeatedly that he was Uncle Chad.  I think Elijah might have a memory issue.

Temple

The next weekend (this last one) we went to the temple in Columbus.  We went through a session with the adult members of Rob's family and then went out to eat with them.  It was a very enjoyable way to spend a Saturday.

Holidays

And it should be Thanksgiving already!  I can never get into the holiday season until mid-November, even with the Christmas decorations up in all the stores pre-Halloween.  We will be spending Thanksgiving with Rob's family up in Toledo.  We're excited about that.  And then Rob will go back up to Toledo the weekend after to sing in a Nativity program with his sisters.

And that's it for now.  I have more stuff to share, like always, and I'll get to it eventually.  Much love to everyone!

Halloween!

The entire week up to Halloween Rob had been sick. I wasn't too sympathetic, since his symptoms weren't horrid. Just a cold, really. I became slightly more sympathetic when Halloween day, about 4 pm, I started feeling a little hazy. Nothing major, just "ugh."

We went to make our traditional Dinner in a Pumpkin, which you cook (appropriately) inside a pumpkin. But the pumpkin we'd bought a while before was rotted out on the bottom. So we made frozen pizzas and worried about the Dinner in a Pumpkin the next day.

This was all just as well for reasons I'll explain after showing off these fabulous photos of the kids in their costumes!

Elijah was a scarecrow (his idea, and Rob's follow-through), Teancom was a horse, and Miciah was a beautiful princess.
Elijah said a few weeks ago that he wanted to be a scarecrow. I was a little surprised, actually. Who wants to be a scarecrow? Miciah was really cute and came up with many ideas for making the costume work. Eventually Rob came up with what you see in the above picture. They had a good time coming up with the costume, and I was glad that he wanted to be something that was FREE. Miciah, too. She was the same beautiful princess that she was last year. I thought she'd throw some fit about it, but she really was happy to be the same thing again.

That's the cutest horse I've ever seen! Teancom is our third kid as a horse, and I think it may be one of the best costumes ever--super cute, and appropriate for both genders. A huge thank you to Angela for passing it down!

Rob with the kids.

After we made Teancom take off the costume, he dragged it around everywhere. He would say, "Pet it, Mommy. Pet it." Super cute. The next morning he dragged it around until we let him put it on. He calls it "his pony."

I want to be a Kirby Salesman for Halloween!

Mid-day a cute young woman showed up at our door and asked if she could do a demo, for free, in our home. I was skeptical, but before I knew it she was scheduling an appointment at 5:00 pm, after Rob got home. She made it sound like it'd be 15 minutes in and out.

I'm sure you're seeing where this is going. So she shows back up and hands the whole deal over to John. John then starts into the WHOLE SALES GIG. Rob carves pumpkins with the kids while I'm half-listening to his pitch. I don't really care. I don't want to buy a Kirby. But he can clean my carpets for free, I don't mind that.

The kids LOVE John. We sit down to eat our pizzas and Miciah asks "if John can stay for dinner." :) We actually ended up offering him dinner, and he ate some pizza with us.

By 6:00 pm we're trying to get out the door to trick-or-treat. I thought he would have been gone by now. But no. I end up taking the kids while Rob stays at the house to get more of the sales pitch. They try to sell us on a $1900 Kirby. We told them we weren't interested at all. HE asked us what price we would buy it for. We told them $500. They said that was absolutely not possible. And we absolutely weren't buying one anyway, so it didn't matter.

By the time 8:30 rolled around, John was still at our home, and for the last hour and a half, at least, we had his manager, Donny, in and out of our house pressuring us into buying a Kirby, offering us different prices. We got them down to $900. Were we interested? No. I told them I'd think about $700. That wasn't possible, Donny said. Well, we weren't going to buy. What about $800 and they'd give Corene an upgrade on her Kirby, too? Umm, no. By this time I'm downstairs to avoid Donny, who is a sleeze. Rob has to come down and show me the numbers. Okay, Donny offers us $760. Not $700, he says, but close.

Finally, after not budging (because as much as a Kirby is cool, we really don't want to buy one), they offer us exactly what we asked for: a $1900 Kirby for $700. Rob came down and reported it to me and I thought, "Heck, ask for $650!" :) Donny said we had to commit tonight. It was the last day of the month, blah, blah, blah. By now our Dave Ramsey anti-sales training had way kicked in. I told Rob this wasn't something we wanted anyway since it went against our current financial goals of getting out of debt and spending way less. I told Rob that furthermore, we were counseled to wait overnight before making any major purchase. Rob went back and told Donny that we'd have to think about any purchase until at least tomorrow. Finally Donny left, upset at us and saying, "You'll never find another one for $700."

So hurrah for no Kirbys! :) Someday we wouldn't mind owning one. They're definitely a good product. But the high-pressure sales is scummy. They make it sound like you're a child abuser for not buying their product: how could you let your children live in such a dirty house? Lame, lame. But I was proud of us for #1 resisting the sale and #2 getting them down $1200 from retail! Dave Ramsey would be proud. ... 'Sides, if we want one someday, we'll have some pretty good leverage for getting them at least pretty dang close to $700: we got them down to that price once before.

The kids with John, the Kirby salesman.

Before John left (he had to stay and finish up until almost 9 pm) he said, "Honest to goodness, that's the lowest I've ever seen him go." Rob asked him how low they could go for John to still make money on the deal. He said, "$1600." And they were willing to sell it for $700. Wow.

Here's the link to the video of Teancom making his horsey neigh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJUEkj_lzmg

Happy Halloween!