I’ve hardly had time to breathe lately, let alone blog.

I’ve spent a day at the pumpkin patch, had an aunt pass away and spent 24 hours driving in three days up to Washington and back. My aunt’s funeral was held in a Baptist church, where Sweet Girl loudly asked why there was a cross up front.  (Whoops.) We’ve attended football games, carved pumpkins and had a sweet Halloween party at my sister’s house. And that’s just the highlights! Here are some fun photos….

Little Man chillin on the pumpkins

"So much sugary goodness, where do I start?"

Munchkin sportin’ his new ‘do’

Rolling his ginormous pumpkin down the lane

Da kids at the pumpkin patch

My li’l punkin

Kiddo with his trophy

Munchkin preparing to carve

Kiddo and Munchkin takin’ care of business

Sweet Girl’s self-designed outfit for carving pumpkins

DH only carves pumpkins if he can use power tools.

We had some cool ’scary’ food at the party… these are yummy cream cheese-filled bats that my sister made.

I made this devilish turkey breast… if I say so myself, it turned out pretty cool.

Salsa/guacamole/sour cream dip. Yummy and fun to make. I used Halloween-shaped cookie cutters to turn tortillas into fun chips to go with the dip.

Little Man dressed as a jack-o-lantern. This isn’t the costume he’ll wear for trick-or-treating - that was much too warm to wear to an indoor party. He did NOT appreciate the costumes - wearing one or seeing everyone else dressed up. It took him a while to get into the groove of the party!

Kiddo as an improvised "Jersey Cow" - (think Barnyard) - he took my cow costume and ‘pierced’ the udders with dollar-store earrings, attempted to put his hair into a mohawk (it wouldn’t stay) and sprayed it black. He walked around trying to look ‘tough’… lol

Munchkin as the Grim Reaper. You’ll have to take my word for it, although you can kind of see his glasses through the hood.

Sweet Girl as a Ballroom Princess, whatever that is.  Again, not her trick-or-treating costume… I’ll be sure to take pics of those, though!

"Santa" even showed up… kinda.

Just in case you ever wanted to know what I looked like with a large afro.

Time sure flies, doesn’t it? Two years ago today you surprised us and left your body behind when Heavenly Father called you home. So much has changed, Dad, but my heartache hasn’t.

You’d be proud of us, Dad. I think we’re doing ok. DH and I celebrated our 10th anniversary already! We went to Nauvoo and Kirtland and kept talking about how much you would have loved seeing all of that. DH told me he’s sure you’ve been there.

Kiddo is almost 15 already! We signed him up to take driver’s ed last week. Classes start in a couple weeks. Can you believe it? Ugh, I can’t. He’s a freshman now, and is taking seminary, too. He’s much better at going to seminary than I was.  He’s in men’s choir at school, and loves to sing so much. He’s doing well in school this year. He’s 1st counselor in the teacher’s quorum and takes his responsibilites seriously. He reminds me of you.

Munchkin is finishing up his final year of junior high. He turned 13 on me this past summer. He’s on the wrestling team again - he’s so wiry, I’m sure he’ll do well again. He’s also hanging out on the honor roll. He was just made deacon’s quorum president a couple months ago. I remember how pleased you were with Kiddo when he took a stint as deacon’s president; I know you’re just as happy for Munchkin.

Sweet Girl… oh, Sweet Girl. You’d be amazed with her. She’s been reading for over a year now, and her new thing is making books. She talks non-stop, and often accompanies her monologues with constant action. She keeps me busy, that’s for sure. She still talks about playing blocks with you and building houses and trains. She also reminds me that you’re happy and you don’t need your walker any more.

Little Man - the one you never met. Unless, of course, you were the one who told him how to drive me batty! In the 17 days between when you left and he came, I’m sure you filled his head with all sorts of information! He’s a little pistol, as you would say. He loves his vroom-vrooms (until a week or so ago, these little cars were called ‘whees’) and insists on carrying a few around with him at all times. He also has a love for all things electronic already… hmmm, where did that come from? LOL I have to keep the office door shut all the time, because he makes a beeline to the computer any chance he gets. He also loves remotes. He REALLY reminds me of you! I just so wish you could have met him now. He gives the best hugs and pat-pats. He’d give you a high-five, then a slide-knuckle bump, and then he’d blow you a kiss.

I know it’s only temporary, but I sure miss you, Daddy. I love you.

 

 

Thanks for the tag, Becky!

What do you like most about where you live?

The neighborhood? It’s very kid friendly, and while people might not come over and chat, they do watch out for each other. The city? Quickly growing and family-oriented. The general area? It’s 15 minutes from where I grew up and all my family is here. What’s not to love?

Is there anything strange about where you live?

Not really, other than the perception people have that it’s a major crime area. Just because some guy got mad at his ex-wife, beheaded her, and took the head with him while he tried to commit suicide by ramming another car head-on…

What is one of your all time favorite music albums and why?

Had you asked this 20 years ago, it would totally have been Wham’s Music from the edge of heaven. I’m only marginally embarrassed to admit that, LOL. These days my favorite scrapbooking music is The Nylons - ya know, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "Kiss Him Goodbye"? I have a cassette that has 3 of their albums on it that I can listen to without ever getting tired of it.

 Did you have a passion for something as a kid that you still have now? (if not, what is one of your passions now?)

I’m not a particularly passionate person, actually. I have always loved reading and music, and that has carried through. I guess now I’m passionate about trying to be the best mother I can.

What do you like most about having a blog?

Like everyone else, I love reading the comments. (Yes, even all the lurkers out there should leave at least one comment every now and then… I do have a stat counter, I know you’re reading! LOL) But I enjoy having a place I can get out some thoughts without making someone actually involve themselves in conversation (tee hee), share stories with friends, and keep some semblance of a journal. I hardly ever write in my ‘real’ journal, but I do print out my blog entries. It’s gonna have to suffice for now.

Who am I tagging?

I’m quite sure most people have already done this - but I’m not sure, as I’ve fallen behind on my blog reading lately. (Getting ready for school, then our big trip to Ohio & Illinois, threw me off groove & I’m still working on finding it!) But - if you haven’t done this, and would like to, go ahead! Leave a comment and I’ll come read your answers.

What is it with the thrill of wreaking havoc this past couple of days? First Little Man and his coloring spree (it wasn’t just his face, unfortunately ) and then today, it was Sweet Girl!

Normally, Sweet Girl is a very good kid - not particularly mischievious, pretty much a rule-follower. In fact, she’s more likely to be telling the other kids to behave, and is pretty quick to inform me of any infractions. But today…

Munchkin came downstairs and sighed. Just by his sigh, I knew something was wrong and I didn’t want to hear it.

"Um, Mom," he said, "you might want to go see what Sweet Girl did. You know that box of packing peanuts at the end of your bed? Well, um, she crawled into it and was jumping around in it. I saw her in there and then she jumped out. There’s styrofoam crap trailed all through your room and down the stairs…"

It took me over an hour to clean up everything. I had to re-make my bed, because she apparently had done somersaults on it, and it, too, was full of styrofoam pieces. I called her up into my room and asked what the heck she’d been thinking.

"It was fun," was all she said. "Me and Munchkin did it." Munchkin was standing next to me and gave me an "Uh, I don’t think so!" look.

"Munchkin did it,too? Are you sure about that? What did you talk about in Sunbeams today?"

"About being honest…"

"Are you still sure that Munchkin helped?"

"Well, no…"

So, she had to apologize to Munchkin for trying to get him in trouble, vacuum up (as best she could) all of the thousands of shreds of styrofoam, and then I sent her down to pack up her toys. I told her that she must not want her toys any more, because not only did she choose to not play with her toys, the thing she chose to play with was naughty. (I’d told her three times earlier today to leave that stuff alone.) So, since she didn’t want to play with her toys, they were going to go away for a day. She’s in there now, putting her toys away in a big box. I’ll bring them back out on Tuesday.  She’s crying and making a fuss, but she says she understands that she made a bad choice.

Ugh. I can only hope next week is better!

… is why you don’t leave markers out, even up on the breakfast counter.