Costume shopping

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24th - 2008

Joe, Michael and Alex have been begging me to take them to the Spirit Halloween store to look for costumes.  I finally caved and took them today.  You know what I realized?  Halloween is just an excuse for girls to dress in slutty costumes.  Seriously 95% of the girls costumes were low cut and short skirts.  I'm glad Joe is a boy.  Also, cheapy Halloween costumes are seriously overpriced.  Some of them were upwards of $50.00.  

We are usually all about the home-made costumes anyway.  They are more creative and you don't end up wearing the same thing as 50 other people.  I did end up buying something for Joe, but it's just an accessory.  Most of his costume we are coming up with at home.  He is pretty excited about it.  You'll just have to wait until Halloween to see it.

The boys had a better time shopping than I did.  They enjoyed looking at all of the creepy, gory, halloween stuff.

What you see is what you get

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23rd - 2008

For some reason, this is the only picture I took today, so this is what you're getting for my picture of the day.  I don't know what Joe and Dallin are doing.  I really don't even remember taking this picture.  Oh well.

I hate Math!

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd - 2008

This is what Joe and I did today:

That was just 1 of 4 pages of math homework.  Did I mention I hate math?  Being predominately Right-brained, I'm not good at math and I don't like it.  Algebra was ok.  I kind of liked solving for x, but anything to do with fractions, word problems, geometry, etc.. just drives me crazy.  

Hiding from the paparazzi

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21st - 2008

For some reason, Joshua refuses to let me take his picture anymore.  If he notices my camera pointed at him, this is what he does:

Maybe he's practicing his hiding technique, for when he's famous someday.

Elmers

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20th - 2008

Again, I was feeling sick today and I didn't really leave the house or take any pictures, so here is my sad little photo of the day:

Tonight I needed comfort food and I've been craving Elmer's for about a week now.  Brian went and got it for me.

What is your favorite comfort food?

The Amazing Race

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19th - 2008

So, I was still feeling the after affects of the little pink pill today (see previous post).  I spent most of the day sleeping and I didn't take any pictures today.  So instead, I'm writing about my favorite show right now:

It's on Sunday night.  In fact there is one on the DVR just waiting to be watched.  Did I mention how much I love DVR?  I've been watching this show for quite a few season's now.  If I could be on any reality tv show, this would be it.  Actually, SYTYCD might be my first choice if I could dance, but I can't, so, oh well.   I love to watch it because I can live vicariously through these teams.  They get to travel all around the world.  They get to do some amazing things.  Here is the new batch of teams for season 13.  I've already picked my teams to love and teams to hate.  In fact, the 3 teams sitting on the steps are my teams to hate.  Can you say big babies, complainers, and dirty players?

Teams I love:  

Toni & Dallas - Mother and son.  I love this team because who doesn't love a boy who is good to his mother?  He doesn't complain that she slows him down.  They get along, they work together as a team and they don't yell at each other.

Andrew & Dan - Frat boys from ASU.  I love this team because they are from ASU and are always sporting the ASU shirts.  Also, they are total dorks.  I LOVE to root for the dorks.

Anita & Arthur - married beekeepers.  Need I say more?  How awesome is this picture?  Sadly, they were eliminated on the first week, but they will always live on as one of my favorite teams.
What tv shows do you live for?

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18th - 2008

Today I had to take one of these:  

It was not good.  These are my dizzy pills.  About a year and a half ago I got really sick.  It came out of nowhere.  I was fine one minute and the next the room was spinning so much I couldn't stand up.  Next came the violent vomiting.  I have NEVER felt like that in my whole life.  Brian took me to the emergency room.  It turns out I had vertigo.  I thought that was odd.  I always thought vertigo had something to do with heights.  Mine was due to an inner ear infection.   The problem is, I have some permanent hearing damage in my right ear.  So, chances are I would experience this again.  And, I did.  Not so violently the next time because my doctor gave me these pills to combat it.  So, any time I felt it coming on I would take one of the pills.  At first I was having quite a few recurrences.  But, I haven't had one in a long time.  Not for at least 5 months.  I was beginning to think I was over it.  

Today I was feeling a little out of it all day.  Nothing too serious, just a little run down.  Then tonight I felt the dizzy coming on.  I really didn't want to take the pill.  While it does a really good job with combating the dizzy, nauseous feeling, it also totally knocks you out.  I'm talking like 12 - 24 hours here.  I fought it as long as I could, but I had to end up taking one tonight.  Who knew a tiny little pink pill could be so powerful?

Withdrawals

FRIDAY, OCTOBER  17th - 2008

I've been going through major withdrawals lately.  It seems like I haven't gotten to hang out with my favorite kiddo's forever.  I especially miss Max.  Max and I used to see each other everyday when I was still working on the fireplace.  I'd go to my mom's to work.  Sheri would be there too.  Max would hang out in the pit with me while I worked.  We had a lot of great conversations.  Then, I finished the fireplace and he started kindergarten.  I hardly ever get to see him anymore.  I miss him a lot.  Today was good because I got to hang out with 5 of my favorite people in the world:  Max, Evan, Emmy, Anna and Addy.  We went to Peter Piper Pizza.  Oh yeah, and my mom and Sheri were there too.  Of course they also make my favorite people list.

Here's Max with his "picture" face.  Whenever he see's you taking a picture of him he puts on this fake smile.

Here is Emmy playing Skee-ball.  I like the way she plays

I know this picture of Evan is a little blurry, but his face is so cute here.  He looks like  a little angel.

Addy hit the jackpot on this game and won over 450 tickets.  She was so happy that the tickets kept coming and coming.

Here is Anna showing off the lovely rings she got with her tickets.
Afterwards Addy and Rowan came to my house to watch Lilo and Stitch.  Addy has been asking me for a while if she could come over to my house.  Today seemed like a good day.  When Ro heard her asking me if she could come over he said:  "Me too."  So Addy and I watched Lilo and Stitch and ate popcorn and m&m's and Rowan played with Tiger and Shadow.  I can't believe I didn't take one picture of him with the cats.  Tiger was a good sport and let Rowan play with him all afternoon.

It was a good day.

My Sad Christmas News

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16th - 2008

Today I am sad because I found out that 2 of my very favorite things about the Christmas season will not be available anymore.  I know it's not quite the holiday season yet, but October is the time when you (I mean me) start to get excited about it.  

The one thing I look forward to all year is when the Shamrock Farms Peppermint Stick ice cream comes out.  It's usually out by the end of September.  In fact, Brian has made a bit of a tradition to buy it for me on our anniversary, which is September 29th.  But, this year it wasn't out yet.  So, we've been keeping an eye out for it ever since.  He finally contacted Shamrock Farms and they gave him the sad news that it has been discontinued.  Now picture me making a sad face.  

This is the only photo I could find of it off the internet.  I don't know why it is so tiny.  Luckily Dryers has a peppermint version as well.  It's not quite as good, but will have to do.

Also, this year I learned that Bath & Body works has discontinued their sugar and spice body wash.  First they get rid of the gingerbread and now the sugar and spice is gone.  How am I supposed to smell yummy this year?  I think someone is conspiring to ruin my Christmas season.  

It's debatable

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15th - 2008

So, part of Joe's homework assignment tonight was to watch the debate and then write 3 - 5 things about what each candidate said, so that they could discuss it in class the next day.  

I had a few problems with this assignment.  First of all, Wednesdays is our busy day.  Joe had both guitar and scouts tonight.  On Wednesdays he doesn't even get home until nearly 9:00 p.m.  And he usually goes right to bed.  With the length of time it takes him, he's not usually asleep until about 10:00 on Wednesday nights.  This makes for a fun Thursday morning.   So, to make a long night even longer, I had to tape the debate for him to watch when he got home.

I didn't realize that it started at 6:00 and not 7:00.  So, I missed the entire first hour.  Then, try to get him to focus when he's tired.  That's fun (heavy sarcasm).  We eventually got it done.  It was 11:30 before he got to sleep.  

Also, by now I am about sick of politics and this election.  I'm done hearing everyone blather on about it.  I just want for it to be over.  I didn't want to watch the debate and now I was forced into it.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm going to vote.  It is my freedom and my right.  It's just that by now, I already know who I'm voting for.  One more debate was not going to change my mind.  

Did I mention how much I hated this homework assignment?

Zoo Day

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14th - 2008

Today was the last day of fall break for Joe, so I took him and Dallin to the zoo.  Alex and Michael had to go back today, so sadly they had to miss out this time.

We always spend a long time at the groundhogs.  I think the boys like them so much because they are so close and they always put on a really good show.

Dallin and Joe doing their best groundhog impersonations:

The bobcat was out today.  I love all of the big cats:  Especially the bobcat, tiger and jaguar.  The Jaguar also put on a really good show, he came right up to the fence where we were at and paced for a long time.  I kind of have a love/hate relationship with the zoo.  I love to see all of the animals so up close, but then I feel so bad about the tiny cages they are in.  I just want them to be able to roam free.  It makes me especially sad when I see the birds.  They should be free to fly.  

I love the giraffes.  I think they are awesome looking animals.  

It was pretty warm and I am a sucker, so the boys talked me into buying them snow cones.

Joe's favorite animal is the Otter.  The Otter's were awesome today too.  There were 2 of them that were awake.  They swam in the water, played with a ball and basically ran around and kept us entertained.

Here are two of the wildest, scariest animals I saw today:

Every time we come, we have to take a picture with the frog statue.

It was a fun way to spend our last day of fall break.  Back to school tomorrow.

After the zoo we stopped by to visit Grandmother for a while.  Joe and Dallin entertained her by putting on skits for her.  Then, she brought out her paintings that she and Rebecca have been working on.  That led to a conversation about Bob Ross, and it just so happened that his show happened to be on right then, so we all watched "The Joy of Painting" with Bob Ross.  The boys loved it.  To quote Joe: "He is freakin' awesome".  Here is Bob painting some "happy trees".

Then we went out back to check out Grandmother's plants.  She gave Joe a plant to take home and take care of.  I hope we don't kill it.  We aren't great with plants.

What a fun day!

Sweet Moves

MONDAY, OCTOBER 13th - 2008

Joe and I went to the park today so Joe could practice his sweet breakdancing moves.  

Here is Joe resting at the park after practicing his sweet breakdancing moves.
It's harder than it looks, but it's also a lot of fun.

Go Fish

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12th - 2008

Today was a lazy Sunday.  We took it easy.  We slowly unpacked from our trip, did a few loads of laundry and played lots and lots of Go Fish.  For some reason,  I hardly ever win.  Today was no different.  Brian and Joe pretty much took turns winning.  I did finally win 1 game today.

Look at Joe's pink windblown cheeks and red chapped lips.  He's still feeling the effects of all that wind on top of Greens Peak yesterday.

This is why I came - Cabin day 3

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11th - 2008

So this is the biggest reason I wanted to take this trip to the cabin:

I wanted to see the aspen trees changing to their fall colors.  So today we drove up to Greens Peak (about a 20 min. drive from the cabin).  The drive is very scenic, we passed tons of aspens on the way.  They did not disappoint.  My dad thought I was crazy when I wanted to stop the car and get out to take some close up shots.  I took tons.  This was one of my favorites:

Before we actually left for Greens Peak, we had a hard time leaving the cabin.  Paul was in the truck with the boys and had no problems getting out.  My mom, dad and I were in my mom's Lexus.  We TRIED to leave and immediately got stuck in the mud.  It had rained off and on all morning.  My dad kept trying to get us out, but the car would only go in reverse.  This is how far he went in reverse before Paul came back to rescue us:

Paul braved the rain to tow us out using the Bobcat.

We finally made it to the top of Greens Peak.  One of the boys favorite things to do is to climb the watchtower.  Sadly, it wasn't open today.  The wind was blowing fiercely at the top of the mountain.  This is 3:00 in the afternoon.  It is 45 degrees outside, but with the windchill it felt much much colder.  Alex was too funny.  He got out of the truck and then got right back in it.  He doesn't handle cold well.  Joe thought he could tough it out in his shorts and t-shirt.  Luckily I had his sweatshirt handy.  Here he is struggling to get it on:

Joe is like me.  He loves the cold.  He also loved the view from the top of the mountain.

The wind was blowing so hard that you could lean all your body weight back into it and it would hold you up.  At first I thought Paul and Joe were exaggerating, but then I tried it for myself.  I leaned back into it and sure enough, it held me up.

The gorgeous view from the top:

It was a great day.  After leaving Greens Peak we headed to El Rancho for a late lunch and then headed for home.  We got home around 8:00 tonight.

Cabin Day 2

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10th - 2008

Here was the view this morning from one of the upstairs balcony's.  This was in Darrel and Trina's room.

Today was a work day.  Joe and the rest of the boys helped Grandpa pick up garbage all around the inside and the outside of the cabin.  The wind was blowing pretty hard, so there was garbage all over the property.  The boys got to take the ranger out to round up the trash, so it wasn't too bad.  They also had to pick up trash inside the cabin and in the garage.  Here is Joe taking a rest from his labors:
My mom and I did some much needed cleaning.  We did the 3 upstairs bathrooms.  We also cleaned the tile in the kitchen/dining room, and we worked on the wood floors in the rest of the cabin.  Then we went into town to get some supplies.

My dad and Paul unboxed and set up furniture almost all day.  I'm sure they were happy when my mom and I went into town.  We had them moving around the couches all morning trying out different lay outs in different rooms.  The saddest was when they had put the brown leather couch upstairs and we had them move it back down and put a different couch upstairs.  Poor guys.  They probably sighed a huge sigh of relief when we went into town.  We were bossing them around pretty good.  Hey, isn't it a woman's prerogative to change her mind?
On the plus side, most of the furniture in the house is put together now.  It's definitely live-able.  This is a picture of the game table in the family room.  We are going to play a lot of Yahtzee, Nertz, Dominoes and Hearts at that table.  I can't wait.

Cabin Day

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9th - 2008

I have been looking forward to this day for a long time.  Today I got to go here:

It's been over a year since I've been up here, and I've been going through major withdrawals.  In fact.  I've been going through withdrawal's since the old cabin burned down (was that in 2001 or 2002?).  Brian, Joe and I used to go up there A LOT.  We miss it.  My dad has been working on this cabin for years.  It is so nearly completed now.  We should all be up there for Thanksgiving.  I can't wait.

Anyway, my mom and I packed up the boys (Joe, Michael and Alex) and headed up north.  You get a real interesting insight into the mind of boys when you are trapped in a car with them for 4 hours.  But that is another story.  

This was the first thing they did when they got to the cabin (of course).  My dad, Paul and Dallin had gone up earlier in the week to work.  When Joe, Michael and Alex got there, they took the ranger out for a ride.  
The boys pretty much had free reign of the upstairs, and they made good use of it.  I love the cabin because the boys don't sit around watching t.v. or playing video games.  They hang out together, go for hikes, go for rides, make up games to play and just have a good time.
I also love the cabin because the days seem so long.  You can be up there 2 days and it feels like a week.  Also, the weather is SO much nicer.  After dying from the heat all summer, it was nice to get into the cool air.  

This was a GREAT day.

A new obsession

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8th - 2008

I think Joe may officially have a new obsession. It's called break-dancing. After seeing Gev last night at the show (pictured here) he has been watching old episodes of So You Think You Can Dance. He's also been on line looking up break dancing videos and moves. We've been searching for local break dancing classes. If any of you out there know of any, please let me know.

We must have watched Gev's break dancing solo about 20 times today. It's ok with me. I love Gev. I could watch him dance all day.

By the way Elise, we saw the pictures of you and Megan after the show with the dancers. We were more than jealous. Joe of course loves the one of you guys with Gev. My favorite dancers this year were: Gev, Mark, Twitch, Courtney and Chelsie H.

Good times.

SYTYCD

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7th - 2008


Everyone else already blogged about this (I'm always behind). Tonight we went and saw So You Think You Can Dance. It was awesome (of course). Tonight happened to be the grand opening for Ganem Jewelers in Scottsdale, so Brian ended up missing the show. We gave his ticket to Michael. Here are Joe and Michael showing their support for Twitch by sporting the Twitch glasses and the 4-real sign.

This was my favorite performance of the show: It's Twitch and Katie dancing to "Mercy".

This was Joe's favorite of the show: It's Twitch and Kherington dancing a waltz to "A New Day Has Begun." Both Joe and Michael are fans of Kherington. They think she's gorgeous (who doesn't?) Joe made sure to rub it in to Brian that he would be missing out on seeing Kherington (Brian is a fan of hers too).
The show was great. Twitch was Joe's favorite before the show, but after, it was all about Gev. Gev really stole the show. He was hillarious. He is now officially Joe's favorite. He especially loved Gev's breakdancing solo. If I new how to add video's I would add it here, but I don't

Well Kim...here you go:

It was a great night. I can't wait until next year.