Trim the Tree

We put up the tree on Sunday, we had a great time! My mom used to get us little kits of ornaments to make, or come up with a fun craft to make an ornament, and she says she's not crafty. I loved this and looked forward to it every year. Some great ornaments came out of it as well, and no matter how ugly they were, we ALWAYS hung them on the tree, year after year. We'd laugh about the really bad ones every year as we got them out of the ornament box. Who can forget the African American Santa, the lovely shrinky dinks, and the salt dough bells and stars. I loved that tradition, so I started doing it with my kids too. We didn't do anything specific last year but the kids helped me put ribbons on some plain balls to dress them up. This year I asked Maci what she wanted to do and she chose silver balls, a package of foam Christmas shapes, and glitter. As long as it has glitter on it Maci's all over it. So the kids painted, stuck, and glittered their ornaments. And we hung the ALL on the tree, no matter if they were technically pretty or not, and I'm just fine with that. We had a great time, and made scones afterwards. This was my first attempt at scones, and they turned out really good! We've decided to make scones a Christmas Tree decorating tradition. We invited Angelita and her kids over to enjoy the huge batch of scones, I still only made half a batch but that is a TON! and we had a lovely evening chatting while the kids played. The rest of the Christmas stuff hasn't made it out of the bins yet, maybe this weekend. . .

She was more excited about this, I promise. She's already got the teenage blah look going.

Twilight Zone

So I went to the Midnight showing of Twilight, kinda unlike me considering I am NOT fanatical about these books. . . but we had a RS craft thing earlier that night and the girl hosting thought it would be fun to go afterwards, which it was. We made a lovely wreath, and then headed off to the show. First off, we were probably 7 out of the 15 people over the age of 21. I suddenly felt very old! Gratefully they let us into the theater and not in the lobby or outside. I guess people had been in the theater since like 8pm? and waiting in the lobby since 1pm. Harry Potter, I can see that for, but Twilight?? How they could afford to do this and not show other movies on the screen I do not know. Anyway, we ate too much popcorn, drank WAY too much soda, and had some laughs before the movie started. I thought the movie was good, but didn't live up to all the hype, which happens with too many movies these days I think. The cheeziness was beyond belief, but I kinda expected that. The overall story was pretty accurate, which is always good, and the special effects were very Bionic Man. I'm glad I went and saw it, it was a fun movie, and I had a really great night. So what did all you guys think?

Not Much Happenin'

Just thought I'd write a quick post about what's happening, or not happening at our house the last couple weeks. We've just been hanging around for the most part, doing laundry, washing dishes, playing Leapfrog Bingo (the kid's favorite game), reading books, that's about it! Chris has been writing papers and studying for tests, the kids and I drove around looking for Christmas lights the other night to give him an hour of quiet time. We found 15 houses with Christmas lights, mostly all in one neighborhood. We probably drove around for a good hour. I thought that there would be more, frankly. I guess Missourians are all for the Christmas lights AFTER Thanksgiving tradition, which is fine by me. You wouldn't know it by what's in the stores though, most of the Christmas stuff was up a couple weeks before Halloween?! and while we were in Branson a couple weeks ago they had Santa and Mrs. Claus strolling about, which I thought was VERY early. We don't have our lights up yet, but plan to put them and the tree up this weekend, seeing as we'll be leaving here on the 16th to go to UT. We gotta get at least 3 weeks of tree time in?! So anyway, nothing too exciting has been going on. We ARE going to Chucky Cheese today for a Bday party, so maybe I'll take some pics and post those. TTFN

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A Few Things I've learned this week

So it's been a LOOONG week, for several reasons, the main one Chris being gone. Here's a few things I've learned this week.

1. I could not be a single mother, don't know how people do it.

2. I could not have a husband that travels for work. Again, don't know how you guys do it?! There's a few benefits, like keeping the house in a somewhat disastrous state, something I try not to do when Chris is home, and not really caring what I look like, what meals taste like, etc. Some say I'd get used to it if I had to do it, I beg to differ. Even though he's at school a lot, I still get to talk to him when he gets home, whenever that is, and snuggle with him on the couch, and just have another person to wage the war with. So I'm so glad I do miss him, and that he does not travel for work, and never will if I can help it!!

3. It DOES get cold in Missouri. And it IS a different kind of cold, just like it's a different kind of hot. The Fall has been so mild here, perfect fall weather, I was almost fooled into thinking the winters wouldn't be too bad, even though we've heard plenty of stories otherwise. But I've lived in UT my whole life! I should be tough enough for a few ice storms. Well, I'm starting to wonder. . . it was FREEZING today, it only got up to 40 and the guy on the weather said with the wind chill it felt like 25, and it's like a bone chilling cold. I think Mom and Dad can relate, kinda like NZ I think. Even though it doesn't snow very much, and definitely doesn't pile up like it does in UT, you get the cold without the beauty of the snow. Anyway, we definitely need to get out our HEAVY coats and gloves, and bundle up for a cold, even if not long, Missouri winter.

4. I HATE that it feels like midnight at 6:00pm. Why does this throw me so much every year? It seems like I get used to it after a couple weeks, hopefully that will be the case again. Rgghgh

5. Maybe it's cause of the election that the week has felt so long. Thank goodness it is finally over, even if I was a little disappointed. The world hasn't ended yet ;) I hope he does well, even if I don't agree with all his theoretical policies. We'll see how many he puts into practice. . .

6. I tend to spend money when Chris is not around. Yet another reason he should get home soon :)

7. You can get some killer costumes at the Disney store the week after Halloween. (Hence what I was spending money on, but I'm really SAVING since they were such good deals) Maci and Gavin better want to be Belle and a Red Power Ranger next year, or else. 10$ for a 40$ costume was sweet!!

8. I need breaks from my kids. As much as I love them, I have not been a very good happy Mom the last couple days. We've tried to fill the time with lots of fun things, but somehow that seems to have made them even crabbier at each other and hence I get crabbier at them. Maybe we all need a good long nap. . . . ah Sundays.

9. I miss quoting movies and TV shows. I did this a lot with my family, especially my sisters, and here I feel like no one will get the joke, so I don't say them out loud. I IMed my sister Katie the other night about my withdrawals. She humored me and typed a few of her favorites, although it wasn't quite the same. Thanks anyway though Kate.

I should be able to come up with 10, to round it off, but I think that's all the rambling for now. Sorry there's no pics, nothing too exciting happening. Maybe I can catch Belle and the Red Ranger around tomorrow.

No Fair

Chris is in UT this weekend for his brother Todd's Homecoming. NO FAIR!!! But welcome home Todd, wish the rest of us could be there, but we'll give you a hug at Christmas. So I'm here bored and lonely and tired but not wanting to go to sleep in an empty bed :( So I'm surfing the net instead! Wish I had more exciting things to write, but I'll say TTFN

Halloween 2008

We had a great Halloween. We carved pumpkins a couple nights before Halloween, the kids wanted to paint theirs as well. Maci's is quite colorful! Maci dressed up like Aleena from the Barbie Movies for school, they were supposed to dress up as someone with "good character" and were not allowed to wear "halloween" costumes?! so she couldn't wear her Witch costume. I was ok with that, I wouldn't want to see Freddie Kreuger at her school either. And it was not a Halloween party they had, it was a Fall party. They're very PC which is weird, but understandable I guess. . . Anyway she had a good time at her party at school.

We went to our friend's house to trick or treat, they have a lot of younger families on their streets and we wanted to go with friends, it's always more fun that way. We went with the Dunakey's, Petersen's, and Eckersley's. It was really fun. All the kids had very creative costumes and had a great time running from house to house. The parents had a hard time keeping up! They got a load of candy, and I was impressed with the quality, none of this All Dum Dums and Smarties and Rock Hard Bubble Gum, we're talking Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfinger, the good stuff!! And of course Maci is allergic to PB so I HAD to get rid of those ones for her ;)

So now we have way too much candy around. . . my friend has a website with some great ideas on how to get rid of the extra candy. www.meckmom.com Check it out, it's a really fun website with tons of great organization and mom friendly advice. Hope you all had a great Halloween! from all the posts it sure looks like it. Now we're on to an even scarier adventure, POTTY TRAINING!!!!! AGGGGG!

We had 3 witches flying through the air

Super Cool Spider Man. Gavin switched between Spiderman and Batman, I'd made him a Batman shirt and we got some gloves, but the day before he decided he still wanted to be Spiderman. We painted his face really cool, that was his favorite part.