Happy Halloween!

Wow! Three posts in one day, but it has been a big day. First I find out I'm old, then I get my prize for the pie contest and of course, it's Halloween and what Halloween would be complete without pics of my favorite kids? :)

As usual, carving the pumpkins takes the most work. (no pics of those...too fuzzy to see). We had everyone lined up cleaning out pumpkin guts and throwing the seeds on the lawn. Troy did a howling coyote, Annie did Tinkerbell, Taylor did Darth Vader, and Tyson did a cat.
Still cleaning them out. It took a while, but it was a beautiful day to be doing it outside.

Tyson did his part in cleaning his out, but he didn't like it much. He kept wiping the guts on the newspaper.

Finally, it was time to dress up. Tyson was Tigger. This is the costume I made for Troy when he was 3 and every one of my kids has worn it since. Tyson really didn't want to put it on...we kind of had to wrestle him into it, but once he looked in the mirror and saw how cute he was he turned into a little ham.

Taylor was Buzz Lightyear. We found this costume at the Disney store last Christmas. It was on clearance for $2! You just can't beat that. The wings have a button to push and they light up. When Taylor asked what the button said, we told him "try me", but he misunderstood. He ran around all night asking people to press the "chinese" button. Funny, but a tad politically incorrect. :)

Annie decided to be Jessie from Toy Story 2. We had a lot of fun making her yarn hair and her vest. She looked so cute.

Finally there is Troy. He got a really cool Eragon sword for his birthday and he wanted to use it for Halloween, so he put together his own "Eragon" costume. Not bad huh?

Halloween was fun as usual. Lots of candy and since Kevin imposes a "Daddy Tax" (which he shares with me of course) we get some candy too. :)

Happy Halloween everyone!

Got my prize!

I got my prize today! It's a handy dandy certificate and a gift card to Fry's. Yay!!

I'm getting old *sigh*

So the other day I'm in Walmart buying diapers and groceries. The girl at the register says to me (and I'm not kidding), "How nice of you to be buying diapers for your grandchild." Of course, I give her "the look" and explained that it is my own child that I'm buying diapers for. She stammers through an apology, but by that time I'm completely annoyed.

Fast forward to Wednesday night. I'm getting ready to get my shower and brushing out my hair from being in a clip. Something in my hair catches the the light in a strange way, so I lean in further to the mirror to investigate. I HAD GRAY HAIRS!!!! It took me about 30 minutes, but I separated them all and plucked them out.

Last night, I did another gray check and noticed that I had a couple of gray eyebrow hairs (which also got plucked) and crow's feet starting next to my eyes.

As I thought about it I realized that in a few months, I'll have my 35th birthday. I'm halfway to 70 and getting closer to 40 every day! The weird thing is that I've never thought of myself as a mature woman. I've always just been me.

Anyway, all of this has started me thinking about aging and how to do it gracefully. I have decided that there is no such thing as aging gracefully....there is aging and there is being graceful, but they don't go together. Whoever came up with that phrase is a moron. So, I'll be kicking and screaming and coloring my hair and fighting my wrinkles until I lose the fight and just age. :)

10

Little Miss Morgan Willis was born to my brother Dustin and his beautiful wife Liz yesterday October 27. She weighed in at a whopping 6lbs, 12oz. (makes my babies look like giants). Morgan makes the tenth grandchild for my parents...4 boys, 6 girls.
Congrats Dustin and Liz. She's a keeper! :)

Say it isn't so!

Yesterday was the Primary Program at church. What cute kids I have! They did a great job and the spirit was so strong. After the closing prayer, Pres. Ray, our Stake President was given the pulpit for a few minutes to make a special announcement. He let us know that we are going to be losing our wonderful Bishop and his family, because they are moving out of the area.

No one saw it coming and it has hit our ward very hard. Bishop Olson is well loved and very respected and his wife PJ is the most wonderful woman I know. I have no doubt that the both of them will be shooting straight to the Celestial Kingdom. There were many, many tears and lots of hugs.

I'm having a really hard time with this, and it's mostly for selfish reasons. I love their family dearly and I want to keep them near. I want to sit in meetings on Sunday morning and be taught by Bishop Olson and enjoy the spirit that he and PJ both have. I'm going to miss that. A lot.

Good luck Bishop and PJ. We love you!

Number 1, WOO HOO!!!

Our HOA had our Halloween Festival today and I entered the pie contest. Mine won first place! (by some fluke there were only 3 entries, but still...a win is a win) Yay!!!! :)

I made a Peanut Butter Pie in a homemade graham cracker crust that I drizzled with chocolate. I took the extra chocolate and made a spider web decor for the top. I am so excited. The kids are bummed that I didn't actually win anything cool...they don't understand that recognition and knowing that others thought I made the best pie is just as good as an actual prize.

Enjoy the "before" picture since the only "after" picture I have is an empty pie pan. :)

**I wrote this post this morning after the festival and I just now received word that there is an actual prize involved. I'll post pics as soon as I get it. Even better! :)

AAAARRGH!!

I have frustration issues. I guess I could chalk it up to comments by my loving husband about being a "control freak" or OCD or something, but I'm more inclined to believe that I'm just resistant to change. :)

I like things as they are. I don't like to upset the apple cart and I really don't like the unknown. That being said, we just leaped into a heap of unknown and I'm not quite sure how to handle it.

Kevin came home two weeks ago with the bad news that his company is cutting all overtime. They are stable financial ground, but feel the need to control spending a little more due to the economy (blah!). Wonderful for them, really sucky for us. Losing overtime is a huge loss to us, and I'm not sure how it's going to work out.

I'm so thankful that we followed the prophet and have worked to build up our food storage, but it still looks pitifully meager. I'm glad we have no debt except our house and one small credit card. I'm also thankful for the law of Tithing and the blessings that come from it, so I know that we are being looked after...it's just that darn unknown thing again that's bugging me.

Strange huh? I know we are being watched over, but I'm frustrated because I don't know what is going to happen. Is that really possible? I've started to worry that my testimony isn't where it should be or that I'm not humble enough and maybe that's why we have these challenges. (sigh)

A few weeks ago, a lesson in RS really hit me hard. The teacher compared the number of Latter Day Saints to the population of the world. It turns out that LDS people are 1 in 67,000,000 (that's 67 million folks). It was a WOW moment for me. I've never thought of it in those terms.

That Sunday night, I used the same comparison in FHE. I had my kids picture a pile of 67,000,000 pennies and a piece of gold on top of that pile. I explained that they are that piece of gold. I explained to them that Satan wants that gold to be a penny, so he does everything he can to make it into a penny. But, Heavenly Father wants our gold to be shiny so he lets Satan try, but the harder he works and the more we resist and do what is right, the shinier our piece of gold gets.

So, I'm trying to picture that now for me... that my gold piece is just getting shinier by enduring these trials. Usually it works.

I guess my frustration today stems from a letter Kevin brought home yesterday that said to expect conservative financial dealings for the next 12-24 months. I don't even know how we can go that long on a depressed salary. I know our food storage won't go that long even if we use our tax return to build it up again.

I'm wondering if I'll need to get a job outside the home. I've tried to take on another kid and more lessons, but everyone is cutting back these days. I'm wondering if I'll be able to start school next fall. I'm wondering how we can buy clothes, shoes, and other necessities for our kids. I'm wondering about a lot of things and trying not to worry and trying to have more faith and hope.

I just read what I wrote and I sound unhappy...not my intention, but I decided I'm not going to change it because it's how I feel and what I'm thinking, and I needed to get these thoughts and feelings off my chest. But, I'm not unhappy at all. I still love my life and wouldn't trade it for anything...I guess I just need to be less resistant to change. :)

A bunch of Smarty Pants Kids :)

On Friday I was able to go to the school for 2 of the 3 Awards Assemblies that the kids were a part of. I missed Troy's because it was first thing in the morning and I was waiting on daycare kids, I made it to Taylor and Annie's.

Here little miss Annie is receiving her "Scholar of Distinction" award. She got straight A's to earn this.
Taylor earned the "Cactus" award. He was so proud. :)
Troy also received a "Scholar of Distinction" award. He earned straight A's as well.

Congrats kids...you did a great job! Keep up the hard work!

Finally...

...I finished! I am so excited! I have now read the entire New Testament from front to back (something I've never done before).

I really enjoyed it. Matthew, Luke and James were my favorites, John was OK, but a little too wordy, Revelations scared the you know what out of me, and I developed a love/frustrated dislike relationship with Paul. (I had issues with some of his passages on women...I know, I know...it's more to do with the times than his actual feelings, but it still frustrated me)

I know we are supposed to be careful of pride, but I'm kind of proud of myself for sticking to this. My next challenge...Annie and the Book of Mormon. I've given her a head start, but I'm hoping to catch and pass her. Maybe then I can get someone to take me to lunch. :)

Oh Poo!

Troy and I have been doing a challenge to read the New Testament. The winner gets to be taken to lunch by the loser. Well, Troy just informed me that he has completed the entire New Testament. I was on Revelations 8 and he was on Revelations 10 and I thought I could take him in the end, but he beat me. (it's really the blog's fault...I was updating it instead of reading my scriptures)

I'm kind of bummed...I really wanted to go to lunch and not have to pay for it. On the other hand I'm really proud of him. He and I both enjoyed reading the scriptures and learned a lot of new things and I'll be happy to give him his reward. :)

Sonora Desert Museum

Today was the last day of the kid's fall break so Kevin and I took the day off and we headed to Tucson to the Sonora Desert Museum. It was hot but we had such a great time.

One of our favorite places was the Cave and Minerals exhibit. There was a "secret" trail that the kids got to take, several pieces of different minerals found in Arizona (beautiful!), a show on volcanic eruptions, pottery, and all kinds of other stuff. We liked the cave so much that we went back before we went home for one more tour.

Here Annie and Taylor are in front of the cavern showing stalactites and stalagmites.

The museum also has several animals native to Arizona. Here is the Mountain Lion cage. He was taking a nap in the window so we got a good look at him. It was fun until he woke up and batted at the window...that freaked out Taylor quite a bit. (which was pretty funny)
The Mule Deer...fun to look at until Kevin started thinking about hunting, then we left that area quickly. :)
Another favorite was the Bobcat cage. This was an open air observation area...just a few wires between us and him and he checked us out thoroughly. Guess he wasn't hungry. ;)

Another area of the museum focuses on crevices and animals that dwell in them and the streams that run through them. There was another "secret" trail for the kids so they all tried it (repeatedly). Troy was the leader...what a brave scout he was to show the way to the others.
Kevin waiting and looking cool as we waited at the other end of the crevice trail.
We decided to go back to see the Bobcats again. The one that was eyeing us was up in the crevice with his mate and they were cuddling. So cute!
No trip on a hot day is complete without an ice cream cone. It's the best way to cool off and rejuvenate, and this was Troy's favorite part of the day.
We stopped to watch the goats eat. She kept looking at us. Maybe she thought we wanted her grass...or maybe she wanted our ice cream.
Tyson's favorite exhibit today was the beavers. In the underwater observation area there is a window to their pond and one of the beavers kept swimming up to the window where he would do a little flip thing and swim away. Every time he'd do that Tyson would just laugh. When Kevin stood at the window, the beaver would come right up to where he was and look at him and move it's lips...maybe one hairy animal communicating with another? (author's note: I thought this was pretty funny...Kevin is allowing me to publish it, but under protest) :)
Annie loved the snake house (yuck!!! How I ended up with a child that loves snakes, I'll never know), but she also loved watching the Desert Tortoise.
My favorite part was the Butterfly garden. Butterflies were everywhere and so beautiful. I love butterflies.
We had a fun time, but we knew it was time to go home when we noticed Tyson zonked out in his stroller. Poor kid...that doesn't look comfortable at all. All in all, it was a long trip, but a fun day and one our kids will remember forever. :)

Troy's Turn!

October is Troy's month to pick the background and the music...perfect for Halloween. Enjoy! :)