Kids Say the Darndest Things - Nov. '13 Edition

Taken from the sidebar....

This [chilly] morning, Miss B saw me in my pajamas....and no bra....Brookelle: "Are those BUMPS in your shirt?" 11/13

One A Day: This MONTH'S Gratitude List

I decided to write one thing in my "Gratitude Journal" - a challenge that was given to everyone in our Young Women organization - on my blog this whole month.  (Except I ended up writing Two-A-Day during the actual Thanksgiving holiday weekend - it was too hard to limit myself.)

Here's the list in it's entirety.
{taken from the sidebar}

1. a DAY OFF school & waking up early!

2. a sweet Primary president who is looking out for Haylee (& her recent Celiac Disease diagnosis) who sent me home with a gluten-free snack for her

3. a ceiling fan...when I am feverish and overheating

4. Katelyn! She was so EXCITED and QUICK to THANK when opening bday gifts today

5. a friend called to see if she could run any errands for me because Miss B & I are sick

6. my husband brings me medication and Vick's - at 1:30 AM - while I lay in bed!

7. Cowboy Dinner

8. Warm-ish, pleasant weather in Park City for our shopping trip this year

9. I finished 3 of my main Christmas shopping lists!

10. better participation & discussion from YW in lesson today

11. I got to spend most of the day with Matt due to him having the day off work with Veteran's Day

12. a good-hearted, in tune, attentive Mia Maid advisor

13. successful YWIE - the YW who spoke did a great job by bringing The Spirit!

14. prayers were answered with our out-of-gas-on-the-freeway "fiasco" today!

15. The MTC Experience for my sons - they were high on The Spirit when they got home!

16. our friends, The Lacy's (they agreed to go out with us!)

17. my Visiting Teachers both came

18. Haylee said she liked dinner - and asked for more!

19. our home - it "works" for our family!

20. two of my YW totally planned & executed mutual

21. I can (& did) go to the temple during Kindergarten

22. a refund check from the Insurance company!

23. inspiration received from the messages of Hilary Weeks and S. Michael Wilcox at TOFW

24. my family was ON TIME to church!

25. Google

26. my supervisor eavesdropped in on a call when I happened to do/say everything right! ;)

27a. There's now a Costa Vida to eat at the halfway point on the drive down to St. George!
27b. kind, generous, (& brave) neighbors of my parents who let my family stay in THEIR house while they were out of town for the long Thanksgiving weekend!

28a. sun & warmth during my walk around the "turkey bowl" track
28b. my neice went "black Friday" (really on Thurs. night) shopping with me

29a. Matt got to baptized & confirm me in the St. George temple Baptistry - a 1st for us! (There was a total of 14 of us in attendance, including my 2 sons, from my extended family.)
29b. shakes at Iceberg ["on the house"] after our temple outing - thanks Papa!

30a. time to visit with and enjoy the company of my cousins & aunts/uncles who I hardly ever get to see.
30b. we returned home to a CLEAN house at 11:15 PM - thanks to me insisting all "Saturday" jobs were done on Wednesday before we left - it felt so good!

November 2013

The Last of a First

MY BABY lost her first tooth today!

Except BABIES don't lose teeth.....

Which means......

She's probably NOT a baby anymore....???

It is kind of alarming to think about.

All of a sudden it was hard for me to swallow.

Should I cheer?

Or should I cry?

It felt quite eerie to me.

I have had "LITTLE CHILDREN" for so long.....
(17 2/3 years to be exact)
...that somehow it seemed like I would have them forever....

And with the loss of a tooth....it's a sign that the "little" is on it's way out.

I've thought about the "someday" when I would no longer be in the "little" stage all these year a lot, no doubt - but it was always an unreachable future (far off future) date!

Basically, I never thought this day would come.

And it just did.

I kind of have a headache.

And my teeth are chattering.
(But that may be because it's 11:30 at night and I just drank a whole cup of ice cold water.)

I'm amazed.  And confused.
(Name that song & artist!)

Miss B was SO eager to show all her brothers & sisters as they came home from school one by one.
(She claims she can "whistle" out the hole, now.  It's more like a "blow", but whatever!)

I was really excited along with her as they each reacted with delight.....
And then I kinda wanted to pretend it didn't happen, too, all at the same time.

When I think about it, the "word" that comes to my mind is "Uh Oh" - as my eyes dart this way and that way and I wonder, Am I in the Twilight Zone?

It is an unfamiliar, mystifying place to be!

*******
In other news, the normally irresponsible, extremely tardy, down-right neglectful Tooth Fairy has already made the visit!  The money is waiting under her pillow as we speak (or write).

He's (she?) trying to redeem him(her?)self.

You see, I think the promptness & dependable behavior of the Tooth Fairy can be explained by the fact that at the very moment her actual tooth came out, I was in my office, with the door closed, working, and she was eating a corn dog in the kitchen (she bit into the stick, and out came her tooth!)  I heard a little cry/whimper, but then it stopped.  A minute later, she came into my office and got up into my face, with her mouth open (and a bit bloody) and let out a moan of sorts - to my surprise, she'd lost a tooth!  And THEN I realized I had MISSED it!  The last first tooth juncture of any of my children - GONE!  And then I berated myself.  I know!  Mother of the Year material right there.
(Although, if I were being realistic, losing a tooth happens away from home [& Mom] all the time.  My other children have lost them at school quite a bit, in fact.  Heck!  I lost my first tooth on the school bus - because I was biting on the seat in front of me. [gross!] )
But, still.....I expect MORE THAN reality.....it's a surefire way to go insane! 

Brace Yourself: My Sewing Machine was Put to Use Twice in a Week

The first time was last weekend.

And THEN I used it again just now!  (I know!  Amazing!)

To sew THESE all on:

{Interesting note about that chair the sash is on.....in the store, the chair looked just about the same color as that scout sash.  And then we got it home, and it was NOT.
You can see how much of a difference the colors are in that picture.}

BACK TO MY SEWING.....
In the exhibit above, if you'll count, you'll discover that there are 21 merit badges......

Which means what?

I'll tell you.

It just so happens to be the [minimum] amount one needs to earn the Eagle rank.

And if you look closer, you'll notice (or not if you're non-scout oriented) amongst those 21, includes all 12 of the "required" ones to become an Eagle Scout, too.

{When I first bought this sash way back when, it was so long that I had to fold, tuck, and pin it to fit the boy....

now we've had to let it all down.  He done went and growed up!}

Which means what?

I GUESS HE FINALLY WANTED TO BE ABLE TO DRIVE!?!?! 

{We set forth a rule.  A driver's license comes after you get your Eagle.}

How else will we know our children are responsible enough?  Mature enough?  Accountable enough? to get behind the wheel of a car.  (We decided this is one way to know.)

So then, this was the scene in our Living Room during the month of October....

.....while he was doing his Eagle PROJECT.  

Since we don't even have any furniture in there, yet, there was plenty of room for boxes, bags, & Bambi to take over the room!  ;)

For his project, he collected new & gently used DVDs for a Children' Hospital.
He got the brilliant idea from yours truly....who had heard something similar in the past from a friend.... 
But, on Haylee & I's most recent visit to the hospital, it was brought to my remembrance how much it is needed!  Haylee, at age 11, was finally to the point where she did very well during that particular visit, but as I watched all the other toddler-aged children (and their parents) around me struggling, my own past "nightmare" hospital/Dr. appts episodes came back to me.....I knew then that the hospital experience wouldn't work without all the various donations they receive (from dolls, to markers, to books, to crafts, to DVDs.)

So, the DVD drive was born.

THANK YOU to everyone who donated!

 The day came when he was able to deliver them to the hospital.  He ended up with over 240 DVDs to donate!

He felt pretty darn good about it that day.  I don't know if it had more to do with the good, warm, fuzzy feeling you get from helping/serving others OR if he was just SO GLAD/RELIEVED/EXCITED he was finally done!  (Got-the-monkey-off-his-back type thing.)

Congratulations, Ryan!

You were a part of history in the making!  You gave me a reason to get my sewing machine out...TWICE in the same week! 

******
But, can I just say it was a royal pain in the butt to STICK TO OUR GUNS of not letting him have his driver's license until he got his Eagle.  Because it was sooo inconvenient for me to drive him everywhere!  So, then I stopped doing that after a "grace period."  And then it was just plain inconvenient for me not to have an extra driver to help me out!
I don't know if he even learned anything from the consequence of not having a driver's license until age 17 1/2.......except that I AM SERIOUS.  I am a [wo]man of my word!

Hopefully, Kyle has watched & learned!

hopefully.

This Weekend:

* I took the kids to Krispie Kreme Doughnuts to 

redeem their 1st term grades. 

Krispie Kremes give one FREE doughnut for each "A" on your report card

(or the equivalent, since our elementary school grades with 1, 2, 3's).

We ended up taking home 5 BOXES of doughnuts amongst everyone!

{It was a little embarrassing walking out of there with SO MANY - without making a purchase, too - but not enough to prevent us from doing it, I guess! ;)}

We had to put names on each of their boxes to keep everyone's straight.....which still didn't completely 

keep out the "treat theif" who lives among us who "Just Couldn't Help It" when it came to 

helping him/herself to others' doughnut supply.

Haylee's portion was used to fill my & Matt's doughnut cravings since

KK are NOT gluten-free.  (sad for Haylee, happy for Matt & I!)

As a substitutre, I took Haylee to Sweet Cake Bake Shop 

which DOES have GF baked goods.

* Next stop was going to Boondocks to get their good

grades rewards.  (3 tokens for A's, 2 tokens for B's).

Of course, the kids had to engage in "sibling banter" about who got more $$ than others!

{We had it all put on a card for now - we'll go & play at a later date!}

* As a rare occasion, we actually were home on Friday night and I made dinner!

I made 7-Layer Tostadas...compliments of a Pinterest find.

I've always loved 7-layer dip - this is a play on that!

{We figured something out:  the older you are, the MORE you liked this dish, and the more layers you put on it.  Matt, Ryan & I put EVERYTHING on it.....The youngest pretty much just had the tortilla, refried beans, & cheese!}

* The reason we were home was because we took our boys to this:

It was the Youth Culminating Event for this year.

Ryan was on the Youth Committee and helped plan it.

A couple of weeks ago, they each got their "Mission Call" in the mail.

Ryan got called to Sapporo, Japan (yea, Japan!)

Kyle was called to Manila, Phillippines.

It was a two-day event (Friday & Saturday),

 but when my boys came home on Friday night,

they were very UPBEAT, GLOWING, POSITIVE, FRIENDLY, COURTEOUS, HAPPY, and EXCITED to continue on the next day......

I could tell they had felt The Spirit all evening.

I'm so thankful for experiences like this for our youth!

 {They were feeling pretty good all dressed up in their spiffy missionary suits!}

 It warmed MY heart, too!

With their "Future Missionary" black name tags!

The next day, I went for just a couple of hours representing the Young Women adult leader from our ward.

There were a number of guest speakers that they learned great things like this from:

{Look!  There's even instructions for Mom, at home.}

I got some photos of some of my darling [future missionary] young women, too!

 (complete with some photo bombs from our young men!)  :)

Ryan was still feeling "the fire" within himself because he [without being asked] did his own laundry Saturday afternoon - a physical preparation that was emphasized during his "training."  :)


*Meanwhile, on Friday night, Matt & I and our daughters had a ice cream & movie "party."
We watched "The Big Green."

 It finally showed up on Netflix - it was a favorite with our boys when they were younger (& still now!)
Now the girls have been introduced to it - they liked it a lot, too!


* On Saturday morning, I went to our ward Relief Society's "Super Saturday."
In the past, I have made the foolish mistake of signing up for MULTIPLE
projects, and then I'm never able to finish them.
SO, this year, I only signed up for ONE THING.  The pillow cases.  Which the "teachers"
had told me were "so easy."
BUT, of course, I wanted to make one for everyone in my family.....which is 7....
and, as it turns out, that STILL equals MULTIPLE projects.
And I would not classify them as "so easy" either.
{I wasn't able to finish.}
My friend didn't get a chance to buy her fabric, yet, so I told her she
should just come anyway - AND she could bring her sewing machine and get "practice" for hers by
doing mine!  I was just kidding, but she came to help for reals - and in reality
I REALLY DID need her.  She made two, and I made two during the allotted time.
HOW DID I THINK I could ever make 7?!?
I was determined to get them done, so I spent the afternoon doing them at home.
After TWO busted needles, running out of bobbin thread, wondering WHY I didn't
stop at two children, and 2 1/2 hours later, I finished the last three pillowcases.

 * We had date night out with our friends at Twigs Bistro.  We'd heard so much about it from "everyone."
There was a 45 min. wait, so we walked around Station Park and checked out
the candy store and the Grand Opening of Old Navy there while we waited.
I would highly recommend the TNT Coulotte, and Matt would
recommend the Twigs Signature Burger.  yummmm.
(But our friends would not recommend what they got, the Spicy Red Curry [not spicy enough] or the Under the Sun pizza [too much meat] - sorry!)


* We went to church on Sunday.
I got to do a little skit for Sunday School that went with the lesson.
Although I did have a few speaking lines, more importantly the skit happened to involve me
eating chocolate chip cookies - sign me up every time!  ;)
I didn't have to teach in Young Women this week - my adviser did - but we are learning about this in November.
As far as self-reliance goes, I realized I did a better job of getting myself to bed at a good time
when I was their [young woman] age than I do today.  (gotta work on that!)


* I had about a 2 hr.nap on Sunday afternoon!
(That seemed like only 15 min.!)


* As is customary on the 3rd Sunday, we had dinner and FHE at Matt's parents' house
with some of the cousins on Sunday evening.
I think the kids may have managed to get more chocolate cake crumbs on the
kitchen counter and floor than in their mouths!  ;)


* Later that evening, we had a little "intervention" with Ryan about College & scholarship applications.
The deadline for most is fast approaching!!!
The High School counselor's goal for him is to get it all done by Thanksgiving
(Wow!  Is this really happening?)


* I think I fell asleep sometime during "Talkin' Sports"

Happy Harvest!

I tried my hand at a REAL garden this year for the first time.  Definition of "REAL?" As in a rectangle-shaped one with multiple rows of plants.  

(Previously, I have planted 1-2 zucchini plants in a flower bed on the edge of our old yard - which I considered not a REAL garden.)

Ryan organized our family - for his Family Life merit badge - back during Spring Break to first, prepare a plot of land in our yard for a garden.  This took half a day, leveling, and getting out the rocks and weeds, and making a "box" around the outer edges with all the leftover boards that were still hanging around our property from the builders 8 months prior.  We really know how to "Live it Up" for Spring Break, don't we?!?  ;)  haha.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of that day.

Gradually, I planted the various vegetables & fruits (green onions, onions, tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins, zucchini, and corn) over the next 6 weeks based on when the seed packet suggested.  (Again, I'm a rookie, so I wasn't ever sure I was doing things exactly right....and I might have been tardy on some of my planting times.)
I don't have any photos of the planting process, either.

And since we didn't have a landscaped yard in, yet, we also didn't have any sprinklers, but our kind back door neighbors (the experienced gardners) let us hook a hose up to their garden spout, so we could at least hand water it.

We divided the garden rows up between us, and each person was in charge of weeding their row.  Like Mom was corn, Dad was onions & tomatoes, Kyle was green onions, Katelyn was zucchini, etc.  Let's just say that some rows stayed better weeded than others!  (like the corn!)

I periodically took pictures through the rest of the season.

JUNE 

AUGUST

We picked our first batch of corn and had it for dinner one night!

(Katelyn's face doesn't look so sure!  :)  That's because OUR corn was not a "pretty" as the corn she was used to getting from the farmer's corn field that used to occupy the land where our home now sits.  Again, I'm a rookie.)

SEPTEMBER

I guess the seed packet was NOT kidding when it suggested putting 3-4 feet in between each row of the vine-like plants (canteloupe/watermelon/pumpkins)......well, I didn't have that kind of space, so I didn't.....and the vines all tangled together and cross-germinated, and produced hybrids, maybe?  Rookie mistake, right?!?

Watermelon

Zucchini

Usually people around here have zucchini growing out their ears, but I can count on my hands how many I got, so maybe I did something wrong?  (Again, I'm a rookie!)

Cantaloupe

Pumpkins

In the end, our onions, green onions, and tomatoes never did come up....they just disappeared into thin air!   (Rookie!) Our [experienced gardner] neighbors actually gave us an "extra" tomato plant she had in a pot and helped my girls plant it in our empty tomato row -- but I think it was a little too late in the season - we never got any ripe tomatoes before we lost our warm weather, they just progressed to the green tomato point....maybe I should just say that we were TRYING to grow green tomatoes - ya know, for Fried Green Tomatoes? - and then I won't look so non-professional!
We also transplanted Miss B's sunflower seed she had planted in a cup at preschool - it grew pretty good out there.

LATER

We picked and ate them!

Another sign of a rookie:

Here's the inside of a couple of our watermelons.....I THINK something is wrong!?!  (Rookie!)

OCTOBER

Our "pumpkin patch" experience was really slick this year.....

We just went out to our back yard and got 'em!

And we carved our very own hone-grown pumpkins into Jack-o-Lanterns with our friends/neighbors one evening.....they all got ripped off by the pumpkin patch prices!  SUCKERS!  ;)

But, as beginner's luck would have it.....there were a couple of our pumpkins in the garden that never did turn ORANGE.....they were STILL green towards the middle of October.  (Again, rookie?)

So, instead, with some Pinspiration, I gave them a little "face lift" - just painted them up, so NO ONE would ever know!

{Except all who read this!}

NOVEMBER

And we displayed them on our porch with some of the pulled-up corn stalks from our garden, too!

 Then we yanked everything all out = end of the season.

Due to the way our landscaping [surprisingly and contrary to our plans] turned out, we're doubling the size of our garden next year!

Is that good or bad?!!?

{We'll hopefully get better at this.}

Anti-Girly Girl

I was SOOOO excited to finally get my first girl when Haylee was born 11 1/2 years ago.  There was WAY TOO MUCH testosterone floating around our home and I was the lone female in the middle of it up until  that time.

Yes.  She is a girl.  As in female.  But, by NO MEANS is she "girly."  In fact, she is turned off by all girlyness.

(although, like all three of my daughters, she DID go through a "dresses only" wearing stage around age 3.)

She still can not believe she wore them.

But I've got proof!  ;)

But that was THEN, this is NOW:

She STILL has never worn the pink jeans I gave her as a Christmas gift last year.

She NEVER wants to get her ears pierced.

She hopes she remains relatively {ahem} "flat."

I know she is like this.  But this latest thing she did really left me shaking my head, dumbfounded.

One thing she for sure is decided about is that she doesn't like to wear make up!  In fact, she has REFUSED - even for her dance recitals when it was strongly recommended by her teacher.

Case in point:

 And this was taken in the darkened auditorium....BUT the stage lights really wash the color out of their faces even more.

Here's one where you can see the comparison to her sister, who is 2 1/2 years younger, and is pleased to wear it, but not Haylee.

But that was like 4 years ago - she quit dance, too - it wasn't worth the fight.....AGAIN, it was too "girly".....she had to wear tights and stuff!!

So, most recently.....like yesterday, Haylee had decided she wanted to dress up like a "Hobo" for Halloween.  She was asking me what we would need to pull this costume together.  I told her we could put brown make up on her face to make her look dirty.

"WHAT?!?" she shrieked.

"Yeah, they have dirty faces.  It's just dressing up - a disguise - it's not who you REALLY are."  I tried to reason.  (Tried being the operative word there.)

"NO WAY!!" she protested.

"Then you won't even look like a Hobo," I informed her.

"Why can't I just put REAL dirt on my face?" she challenged back.

{huh?}  Me, silent, mouth open, trying to make sense of that.

"I can get some dirt right in our back yard!" she pleaded her case.

"So, you would rather rub your face in DIRT than wear make up?" I inquired.

"HECK YEAH!" she grinned.

{WHATEVER!!!}

So, that's exactly what she did.  She went and got dirt out of our still-flowerless-flower beds and applied it onto her face!

Complete with a little {real} dirt clod stuck to the side of her nose there.

AND....she just didn't "quite feel like" changing back into her regular clothes after the Halloween parade that she had taken to school .....so she just spent the rest of the school day in her very holey hobo jeans!!

I guess the "suitable" jeans she had packed were too "girly" after she got a taste of the grungy...?!?