Your Opinion Matters - Vote Now...

 What, You expected something POLITICAL?

Yeah, not around here missy - I'm all for voting and all, but I'll keep my political opinions to myself!

This is of much more immediate importance anyway right?  I really need a new "do" - and after much looking (about 20 minutes worth) I've narrowed it down to these...  now of course the "do" doesn't come with the professional make-up job of the model thin long neck... or even that Princess Leia inspired get-up on the last girl...  but I need some opinions.  It's too late to leave it long, but my shortest layers have finally reached my neck, so we're ready to chop them all off...

I haven't worn bangs in years... could I do it again?  I really can't decide.  

I'd love to say that whichever "do" gets the most votes will be the one I go with, but until I get back from the salon (a.k.a. the cheaper beauty school) Nobody will really know!  Next week - I'm saving up the nerve to just take the plunge... so voice your opinions now - hey, if you don't vote - you can't complain.  (you hear that hubby?)

Because Our Family is SOOO much fun...

We take normal everyday boring moments and liven them up a tad... okay, well - here's hoping that this first one doesn't happen EVERY day...

T was in his theatre class at school and was lucky enough to be a volunteer for the teacher - her annual gory make-up demonstration...  Now, because I took a few theatrical make-up classes in college I could tell you that there are some serious "no-no's" happening in this particular make-up job - but at first glance... well, let's just say it's a good thing that I HAVE taken a few classes and didn't freak out!  T hammed it up all through school (theatre is first period of course) and got a few sympathetic reactions from teachers and students...  Where on earth did he learn to be such a dramatic little booger?

( This is where the arial shot of everyone around the fire pit belongs... it disappeared into the ether and apparently Blogger doesn't want me to upload it again... Grrr...)

Then we had company - (yes, the company that I cleaned up for... no worries, we're back to clutter as usual!) - and because we're the consummate hosts we pulled out all the stops and did tin-foil dinners.  Yep that's right, Hobo dinners for people that drove 3+ hours just to see us...  It was Hubby's call, but they were actually pretty good.  That, and I love that when he cooks outdoors - I'm completely off the hook - especially since I got paper plates and cups just for the occasion!  (I know, I know... very un-green of me!)  After the sumptuous meal we crowded around our backyard fire pit and roasted a few marshmallows, ate a few s'mores and answered questions such as "would you rather clean the bathroom with your tongue or drink a cup of cat spit?"... a real winner for the kids to be sure!   Never let it be said that we are not a barrel of laughs around here! 

After a very relaxing nights' sleep (well, I'm assuming someone relaxed at some point) we were lucky enough to be blessed by our local good weather.  With temperatures in the 80's even this late in October we decided that it was a perfect day for the reservoir.  So - we picked up the Sea-Doo's (from our time-share type rental club) and headed out.  There was really no chance of getting nasty sunburns - but a few rays got through and I do have a little color to show for it.  This particular pictures shows W learning the water-skiing ropes from Uncle L - who happens to be pretty good at it as he demonstrated.  Q gave it a go as well and surprised us all by staying up for quite a ways around the reservoir but also rewarding us with a nice splash in the end!  

Say WHAT???

I've been mulling over this post for awhile... why you ask?  (really, ask....)

Well, since you asked it's because this is post number 100 - the kindergarten classes always celebrate 100 day and from what I've seen in my short stint (8 months) as a blogger there are some pretty fancy 100th posts out there...  I did some "research" to see how big a deal I should make of this... I mean - do I get some sort of trophy for my mantel  for setting a landspeed record of the most inane chatter in an 8 month period?  

Yeah - that'll do nicely!

Anywho - in all this "research" (which is my word for all the time I spent blogging that one day) I have found that there are some mighty special posts out there for #100...  I saw lists of 100 random facts (if you'll recall I had a hard time coming up with 7) I've seen retrospective posts going all the way back to their bloggy beginnings (ummm... not long enough ago, I still remember it just fine) I've seen giveaways (I just read a book I didn't like... and I've got a chest cold I'm tired of...)  I've... I've tapped my knowledge - I guess my research was more Exhausting and not so much Exhaustive!

Sooo - I'm breaking with Tradition - I've decided that since the number 100 is represented in Roman Numerals by a big fat letter C that we'll allow that to speak for me for now:

Caught Crummy Chest Cold - really - haven't had a voice until this afternoon when I had to yell at my son, it's been a very quiet household!

Compelled Chores and Cleanliness - had visitors (which you'll read more about later) and just couldn't stand the thought of them thinking we ALWAYS live in squalor!  Of course, Meg is a blog reader and now she knows that we cleaned just for her arrival...  should have REALLY scrubbed I guess!

Cheap - the country's cash crisis is really creeping me out - I can't cough up $ for anything full priced... this whole fiasco has created a Coupon Clipper out of me!

Camera - well, duh... I'm connected to mine at the hip!

Cats - Ahh Chooo...

Candles - I love the way they smell... I don't even light them, 'cause the smoke bugs me - but the smell is nice just sitting in the room!

Church Callings - currently I love mine, but check back in a few weeks - I have mood swings when it comes to children :)  I do love my Church in general though!

Cold - not the Congestion, the Climate!  I hate it... I can't stand it... keep it away.  My whole family is in Colorado and I can't even visit in the winter... 

Course of Action - (hey, there are no other C words in the thesaurus for "plan") - my point being that I never have one... I make To-Do lists some days, and sometimes I look at them... but I think most of my life is shooting from the hip... I know this stuff is!

Coughing -  yeah, I know I already used that one, but the Context was different - this time I'm busy actually coughing and my chest is killing me... I think that's enough C's anyway don't you?

C is For Cookie - and that's good enough for me!

Decorating for the Holidays...

In my bleary eyed stupor of the morning I was reading an article in my local newspaper - and the writer of said article actually had the audacity to call Halloween "pointless"...  Now yes, I can see her point that all other holidays - regardless of their current commercialism - have some underlying religious or memorial purpose.  I get that - but I still enjoy the Halloween preparations!  

You see, I enjoy making my kids' costumes...  I am a self professed "Halloween Seamstress".  To use this title for yourself you must first understand a few things:

The kids wear the costume once... "durability" is optional

It is dark when trick-or-treating... straight seams are wasted

In most areas of the country, it is cold Halloween night - and a coat covers a lot of mistakes

The costume is GOING to get dirty...  don't put lots of effort into it!

Oh, and the fact that I barely use my sewing machine the rest of the year...  Practice makes perfect - but since we're not going for perfection - Ta-dah... "Halloween Seamstress Extraordinaire"

So there's the 40 minute Tinkerbell- made from my hubby's old t-shirt (a gift, he didn't BUY something that color).  And the borrowed Dorothy, because my neighbor doesn't deserve the Halloween Seamstress Title and her costume has survived a few years.  The Classy Vampire(minus the makeup job), because after reading Twilight I just can't envision vampires not dressed nicely.  (and we're going to pretend that the blurriness of the photo is all about my kids' privacy and has nothing to do with my lack of photography skills or my sons lack of ability to Hold Still For A Second!) The Roadkill... actually 2 pictures of that because you just had to see a close-up of the fly buzzing around the skunk.  And T - sporting his cousin's name-tag...  I'm sure if he wears this costume to school it will be the name of one of his friends instead.   I have earned my title this year for sure!

As a general rule, October 1st has my kids rummaging through the boxes of decorations looking for the wooden skeleton and the brick Frankenstein - and then arguing about where best to display these creepy fellows.  As loyal blog readers will know, that particular date was a tad busy this year and we have yet to decorate our home... even the "coffin" which used to be a guitar box is still downstairs in the holiday closet.  I just can't bring myself to go all out for such a short time - I'm thinking I will just go straight for the wooden turkey and save myself a lot of effort.  Hey, at least my blog is all "Halloween-y" (yes I'm aware that isn't a word... and even if it were we'd all think it was a funny sounding one at best)

So - Early though it may be... aside from the Extreme Candy Consumption - I'm done with Halloween... and no hate-comments please, it's not like we're skipping Christmas!

Jam Packed Weekend of Fun, Fun, Fun!

Our weekend began very early Friday morning with a long car drive up to Ogden UT...  long enough that we needed to stop for gas before arriving - this was a little hard on the kids, but I like to pretend that they are good little travelers and I read my book completely ignorant of the fact that they are elbowing each other and fighting over who is touching whom...  Luckily when we stopped for gas we took a short break and walked around Cabela's...  for those of you who have never visited this mecca of camping/hunting/fishing supplies - you must know that it is virtually filled with taxidermy... although it was a little freaky when we happened upon an animatronic hunter amongst the taxidermy... of course Q told the kids it was just another example of taxidermy.   It's like Disneyland for avid campers - as is evidenced by the parking direction signs, the multiple entrance doors, and the postcards... really - postcards, I'm not about to send a card that says "Having a great time overpaying for road trip snacks - wish you were here!"

Next we made it to the Treehouse Children's Museum in Ogden - I've been trying to get up there for the past year and finally we made it work - it's a huge children's museum and worth the trip... T claimed to not have much fun, but there he is hangin' with Abe, looking to be enjoying himself anyway!  T's favorite part of the museum was the music area (easily the loudest area), though he was hoping for a little more in the science department... he might just be getting too old for children's museums?  W liked all the little areas where he could display his artistic talents.  P was digging the building blocks... the boys all did a contest together and although their tower was only the second highest theirs was free standing whilst the winning tower had to be held up by human hands...  I'm going to over-rule the museum staff and claim victory for the boys in this one!

H also really loved the art - especially the "art garden" where she made a lovely spooky card for halloween.  

M was totally in her element during the entire visit - 

we had to beg and plead to get her to take a break just to use the restroom.  As her fave she picked the firetruck, then the "tea party with Daddy in the White Bunny House", then... everything else.  and aside from a few tears when a younger child left angry red welts on her arm when he decided it was his turn to drive the fire truck and a close call when another child threw ABC blocks over the school house wall... she couldn't have been happier.  Her first words upon leaving the museum?  "Can we go to this place again?"... before she had even done her seatbelt!

No pictures of the Arby's lunch - but I do have to mention how disgusting "Mac 'n Cheezers" look...  and how silly it is that we adults bribe our children with "you'll get a treat if you finish your food..."  Here honey, have a few over-processed pieces of something that used to resemble chicken and if you eat it all you can have some refined sugar and fats as dessert!

Then we dropped off the kids... big thanks go out to Q's parents for putting up with our lovelies!

After Checking in to our B&B - The Hines Mansion in Provo, UT 

- we took a stroll around town.  I recently (yesterday) heard Provo referred to by Glen Beck... he said that it made Stepford look sane - well Glen - not THIS part of Provo.  I wonder, when Q and I were first married, did we realize that we lived in a dump... in the worst part of town?  It's certainly a lot dingier than I remember!  We did take the opportunity to finally walk through the "new" library (new to me at least).  That's the library in the picture by the way - the mansion is below... well, our room at least. We also took in a play at the Covey Arts Center that replaced the old library...  it was a whim and we didn't know anything about the play...  and frankly after watching "The Turn of The Screw" I'm still left wondering what it was all about...  if you've seen it and have any insight - feel free to share!

The B&B - well... okay, the bed was as high as my waist - and 

the breakfast was delicious... although I was a little disappointed that the little bowl of yummy fruit was mixed with poisonous fruit like cantaloupe.  Granted - nobody at the B&B was aware of my allergy - but having the entire bowl spoiled was a little sad.  The room we stayed in 

was "the library" although the only book there was the little guest book that everyone was supposed to sign.  I usually skip reading these because frankly - I'm always afraid that I'll find that I know a bunch of the other people who slept there!

At least now I can say I've slept in a library... 

The door to the bathroom was pretty cool as well :)

Saturday morning after checkout we made some quick stops to pick up forgotten items (have I EVER remembered everything?) like contact solution and hair gel... speaking of hair gel...  we're walking through the hair care aisle and I reach for a bottle of hair gel - but it's a broken bottle (I didn't do it!) and there's gel gushing everywhere... Q dipped his fingers in quickly and then did his hair while I grabbed a different bottle to purchase.  Is this shoplifting?

The ladies luncheon was yummy and fun - no pictures, sorry... I forgot my camera.  I really should have ordered something else though... far too many healthy veggies in that Cashew Chicken!!  (yes, you can say I told you so now)

The Craft is also photo-less... I was in charge of having everyone make cutesy hair bows for their little girls/nieces and it was a smashing success.  And if any female relation of mine gets on here and claims otherwise - they are dead wrong :)    LC and Megz posted photos if you don't believe me!

Next up would be the Halloween Party - an annual 

tradition that is the highlight of the season...  Just think somewhere between Chaos and Heaven...  Having given up on the game of musical chairs (it got really expensive what with all those broken folding chairs every year) we enjoyed some tamer games - and ESPECIALLY enjoyed Uncle D's very scary mission ghost-story with its multiple forays into doctrinal discussions...   If you look closely you can see W sitting with a skunk on his back (about 4 o'clock) - P as the classy vampire 2 to his right (looking straight at the camera) - and at 10:00 my cute little Stinkerbell and her sister Dorothy...   our wonderful teenage T is not pictured, but he was not far off sporting HIS costume... which consisted of a name tag which read "Hello, my name is C..."  His cousin C was pretty impressed :)

Sunday morning was slightly lazy - aside from 

getting all 6 adults and 11 children in the house ready to go to church!  My camera battery was suffering greatly by this point so there's no cute picture of newly blessed baby C in his chubby adorable-ness.  There is however this picture of the family quickly jumping for the food table where Aunty A had to request that the kids only take one dessert apiece (right before her own son took 3...)!  Little N standing there in the foreground is sporting a little hair bow from the craft (I think)...  

So that's it, my weekend in a nutshell... I'm sure everyone feels closer to me now :)

We're always happy when we get to spend lots of family time and enjoy all cousins/uncles/aunts - and then we're happy to come home and take a deep breath... until this weekend :)

Enough about the psychosomatic itching already!

I don't mean YOUR itching - I meant MINE of course...  I can't read anymore about it - and somehow despite my newfound ability to laugh about troubling times... I can't bear to leave that post up there representing my family while we go out of town for the weekend - SOOOooo, I need a new post.

Problem:  I've got nothin' - zilch, nada, zippo, bupkis! My brain is exhausted from making some quick Halloween costumes (gotta have 'em for the party tomorrow - as a matter of fact, we've still gotta go run over some stuffed animals for W's costume - he's going as RoadKill)

I could tell you all about the fun plans that we have in store for the weekend, but that would pretty much be a spoiler because I fully intend to take lots of pictures at the museum, the B&B, the sister luncheon, the wonderful craft, the party, and of the cute little new cousin!  You'll hear all about it next week...  

So how about this?  A question:  how dressed up do you get to run errands?  I've seen people in fuzzy slippers and their nightgowns at Albertson's in the wee morning hours - and we won't mention some of the atrocities I've seen at WalMart...  was that YOU?  I personally don't think I should have to do my hair or my make-up to run a quick errand, but I do think that certain standards of decency should be followed...  and then today - about 45 minutes ago to be precise, I had need of some hair clips which can only be found at Sally Beauty Supply...

Judging by the looks I got from the people at Sally - maybe I should have rethought my stand on hair and make-up to walk into a beauty supply place.  I'm pretty sure they wanted to pounce on me and do a makeover!   So, is "slumming" it okay - is it just me running around and scaring the world with my natural skin showing?  I know the ladies who work there have to look all nice, but I don't see any reason why I should spend twenty minutes getting ready to spend 5 minutes in a store!

Okay - I guess my "nothing" post became "something" after all... discuss amongst yourselves - I'll be back Monday with lots of photos to share!

Making light of a stressful situation...

First off, I have to admit to the world that my "stressful situation" doesn't hold a candle to some people's - and I'm sure that somebody will read this and say "what... THAT stresses her out, I'd like to see her handle MY life"   Well go right ahead...  I know that in comparison my life is peachy keen and since there was no loss of life (well, lives of human beings) and relatively little loss of comfort I will just get over this... but since this is MY blog and because there was SOME loss of sanity - I'm putting this into my stressful category and that's that.

You see, on the heels of my Monday from Albuquerque (Albuquerque being next door to Hades) I got the a Tuesday I would like to forever wipe from memory!  I have two beautiful daughters (and 3 handsome sons who don't figure into this story much) and 4 yr old M and I spent the morning volunteering in 6 yr old H's 1st grade class...  So far, no stress... life is good - I can cope, really I can!  Then... as M is sitting on my lap I see some movement from the corner of my eye... unfortunately the corner of my eye is focused on her SCALP!  There is a little teensy but definitely disgusting little bug in her HAIR... So I run screaming from the school (well, not really) - straight to the store to purchase every conceivable lice treatment in the world... or at least on their shelves.

I know... "ewwww", "ick!", and "Holy Crap - have my kids been anywhere near those filthy children?!?" and especially "oh please, let her not have posted pictures of those!"

Now, because I paid attention in health class - and because I saw the Arthur episode where Muffy gets lice - I KNOW that lice is not the "dirty disease" that it was believed to be... I KNOW this in my brain, but knowledge possessed in my brain does not always translate to emotional well being as I make phone call after phone call to schools, preschool, and even dental office to tell them the lovely news - I am not ashamed to admit now that I was crying many tears of shame then.  It took over a week to wash/boil/spray/throw out/quarantine everything in my house and slightly longer than that to be mentally prepared to be humorous about the situation!

So, without further Ado, I present:

All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Lice:

Share Everything (except hats, combs, jackets, barbies... yeah, never mind - be selfish, it's safer that way) *  Play Fair - and at least 5 feet from the nearest child * Don't hit people, especially when they might wrestle you down to a questionably clean rug that hasn't been disinfected yet * Put things back where you found them, after mom has finished tumbling them in the dryer on HOT for 20 minutes * Don't take things that aren't yours, especially combs and hats! * Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody, because nobody likes having their hair pulled even if it is very necessary to remove every last nit * Wash your hands before you eat - and as often as possible, especially is you touch your sisters/daughters hair * Flush - wait, I didn't learn that last week... but it's still important! * Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you - and a good break from stress * Live a balanced life - take breaks each hour from hair searching * Take a nap every afternoon, because you probably haven't slept at night while doing all this darn laundry * When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together - and keep your hair tied into tight little bands so as not to share anything unpleasant * Be aware of wonder.  Life can exist in a tiny seed - or a tiny egg that should be removed and destroyed thoroughly * Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die, and so do lice... they're just harder to kill * and then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.  Look VERY closely until your eyeballs are ready to pop out!   (with apologies to Robert Fulghum)

I also learned that good friends are good to have and "I've been there" are nice words to hear sometimes! * there is a lot of fabric in cars... whether you drive a Yugo or a Mercedes - those stupid seatbelts never end!  * no matter how tired you are you should still separate your laundry carefully because even though the 9 year old thinks his new pink splotchy polo is cool it screams "my mom can't do laundry" to the rest of the world! * Dolls and Barbies really don't need changes of clothes! * Who needs so many stuffed animals? * Attachment to physical possessions (bows, hairbows, etc...) is evil * Cheap rugs are cheap for a reason and don't necessarily like to be thrown in the washing machine * Tenacity is a good quality, except in tiny little bugs * Staying fit is important in case you ever need to bend to do laundry for 20 hours straight!

On a lighter note, the girls had REALLY cute hair do's for 10 days straight... 

and the bedrooms were REALLY REALLY clean when all was said and done!

(with special thanks to the teachers and principal at my daughter's school for their subtlety - she came home BEAMING because Mrs. T loved her hairdo's... even though Mom suspects there was some other reason for taking a glance at her head!)