Happy Halloween!

I can go two different ways on this post. One being, how today was so gloomy and windy with the forecast of rain, could ruin everything. It even sprinkled right when I walked out to take pictures. But 45 minutes before we were suppose to go, my prayers were answered..... or two.....

Today we ditched our Halloween tradition and joined in the good old fun of Trick-or-Treating. We started off with Boo at the Zoo, which was fun and surprisingly not packed. Then while I fixed dinner, Jake took the kids to some houses around our neck of the woods. (I am still not allowed to lift Katanya, so Jake got the responsibility of being the chauffeur.) The kids think they got tons of candy, (reality...just enough) but loved everything. Since I made Cruz be the 18th century beau (he didn't really care), after we were done tonight, I promised him that next year he can be whatever he wants. He's already talking about dinosaurs....

P.S. Did I mention how my brother and his wife came up for the weekend. This is a record for him....2 visits within 6 weeks. He picked the right girl.

Green thumb and a Fall favorite

Since it's in the air, I figured a post wouldn't hurt. Fall has been here for a couple months for us. Some nights has been 20 degrees or colder. We have been enjoying the nice days at 60+ though.

McKay was so excited about her garden this year. Without fail she would water it everyday, and inspect it several times a day. While she was in Utah for a month during the summer, she would have me send pictures via text messages so she could see the growth. Many of times, I would get a text asking if I had watered her garden. She made it back just in time to enjoy the first peas. Since it was planted later (end of June), we knew that some of it might not make it or get very big. She still would come in everyday to tell us how big everything was getting. A garden does bring real satisfaction.

One of my fall favorites is banana squash. She had two of them before the frost killed the plant. (Notice the black plant in the background.) I like to cut the squash up into squares, put it in a casserole dish, and add butter and brown sugar. This is probably my favorite vegetable of all time. McKay's squash were some of the best we have had in a long time.

You really know it is good when Kirsten snuck up to Jake after dinner and whispered in his ear, "The squash was really good, but don't tell McKay."

McKay - take two

This time it went a lot better! All smiles and no tears. I like the sepia, Jake doesn't. What's new. We will probably disagree on the pictures that I chose also.

I couldn't get McKay to say anything to bring her smile out of the "cheese" smile. Although I happy with a couple of the pictures.

Now I'm all done for the year. I only have the kids' group picture and the family picture left. I'm hoping Betsy won't mind taking our family picture in Texas somewhere when we come down in 18 or 19 days...?

P.S. All costumes are sewn. One zipper left and lace to attach to go! I am to the point I hate sewing, zippers, gathering, and unpicking. Although, I do love the surging, Velcro, and my neighbor who saved me with the zipper catastrophe. My house is a total disarray. (Honestly. My wooden floor has never been this dirty.) It makes me a grouchy person sometimes. So tonight I will be done(crossing fingers). Tomorrow I will be cleaning, and by Thursday I'll be a happy mom again.

Max

Max was everybody's favorite kitten. Furry, friendly, and a little fiesty. He was a shrimper; he loved to like your toes. I'm sad to say that Max didn't make it across the road last night. He's now in kitty heaven, playing with the rest of his family. This summer in June, we had 6 cats, we are now down to one. Four have been tragedies of vehicles. Although the last one, Hannah, is pregnant so our count won't be down too long.

****P.S. Yellow tabby cats are always my favorite. I had one growing up as well.

Update

Jake - Forever busy doing something and everything
Amy - 2 1/2 costumes done, third hopefully tonight or early morning
McKay - Updating her 7 weird things on her blog, actually pretty good (maybe it's just because I'm her mom)
Kirsten - Wanting to watch Halloween movies but any scary parts she has to be sitting on your lap (ie: Twitches)
Cruz - Learning and writing his letters
Katanya - More teasing and talking, emphasis on teasing

What keeps us all motivated? THANKSGIVING!

7 weird things

1 - Socks & Sunglasses are disposable
2 - Cursive is only used in 3rd grade
3 - Suits & Boots Boots & Beach
4 - "I don't believe it!"
5 - Count-a-holic
6 - Button pusher
7 - Eat it... mmm ... til you puke.

I tag McKay!

our weekend visitors

Hannah and Robbie came and stayed with us this weekend. As I've said many times before, we love visitors. (I've said it so much I probably sound desperate or something.) Besides Jake and Robbie talking Economics almost all the time, given it's been 8 years since Jake's been in the course, we got in some good ol' country shooting. This was our shooting range, water filled plastic bottles placed in our "gold" mountain.

Such a cute couple.

Blasting some with the shotguns.

"Obviously a marriage founded in the second amendment." Thanks again for staying with us!

Project Runway

I don't know what to say. I have really put myself to the test. I usually only make Halloween costumes every other year. Last year was the Three Little Indians and a Cowboy. This year I really tried to talk myself out of it. I don't know who to blame:

• ME - was it just that I was bored at nights and trying to find something to do?
• MY FRIEND - who graciously offered to watch my kids in between events I had going on yesterday that allowed my three extra hours all by myself. This allowing me to actually walk around and look at patterns and fabric. A deadly disaster?
• JACOB - and his great taste. Not kidding. This will be left for a later post.
• MY MOM - who so nicely left her surger here for an indefinite amount of time. It's 12 years old and has only been used once before, by me.

So the stars were aligned. I met up with Jake and we went to the fabulous fabric store - MOOD - I mean WalMart. The rest is in the picture. Now I have a deadline. Four costumes in two weeks. Granted I want pictures, so less than that. I will know after the first costume, if I finish it by Sunday, I know it can be done. So I must give up my blogging quest for awhile. Hopefully Jake can keep you guys all entertained. Happy Stiches and Surges everyone!

Random surfing

I feel good tonight. It's amazing how good you feel when you know you're hair looks good. I've showered and for the first time since the surgery, I styled my hair. Yeah, it's 9 p.m. but you have to start somewhere. So here I am, in my monkey pajamas, and my "new" do, I'm catching up on the tagging that happened.


This one had to do with pics so I'll start with Laura's tag. It's suppose to be the fourth picture on file. Since everything is labeled by years, dates, months, and events. I went to the first folder and fourth picture down. This is one of my favorites. It was a month into when Jake and I were dating. We had gone to conference that Sunday. Six days later, we got engaged. This was also the day McKay broke her arm when she with with Mike. It's funny how a picture can stir up random memories.

After a couple hours of trying to blog the second photo tag from Lindsey, I give up. Blogger just doesn't want to work. On this one it was the sixth photo in the sixth folder. I, again, had to go deeper. It was the sixth year folder, sixth month folder, sixth event folder and finally the sixth picture. It was one of Katanya in the NICU. But, it's atlas bedtime and I'm sore and ready to snooze. Better luck next time.

And now since I'm crippled and can't "run". I'll be forever it and won't catch (tag) anybody.

just for the record:

I LOVE SPAGHETTI!

Pride and Humility

I've always been very self-conscious of myself. I don't like people to see my in pain. It's been hard this surgery because I swear that it's been harder than my Cesarean. With my c-section, I had all the hormones and adrenaline pumping to carry me through. My body must be aging because it's taking me longer to recover. I really don't want to get old. Although with all the down sides, I am so thankful for the ups.

My staples really upset me the first time I saw them. So much that in fact I tried to push Jake away and not let him see them. I insisted that he leave the room. Being Jake and that said, he didn't. I had a breakdown in the shower and almost passed out because I let myself get that bothered. That's the down. The upside is that I should know better and that Jake loves me for me. He has shown me thru all the little tasks and everything he has done to help out. Jake doesn't show this side very often but when he does it's real.

I tried to keep my surgery on the down low. I don't like to be the one fussed over. That was all over when our home teacher saw us in the hospital and made it a point to visit yesterday. This is another very grateful "up" as I am still not yet back to even 50%. The yummy dinners and breads and treats has been very nice and have kept the stress and movement down.

I guess as I write this, I am noticing that maybe I have a pride issue. I think that maybe some conference talks are in need for me to read and that maybe this is a lesson that I will learn from. As for now, I am learning to be lazy for a little while. Finally after being bull-headed for too many years, I have learned that if I just take it easy, I will heal faster and not pro-long anything.

Blogging Break

For the past couple weeks, I felt like we had been making progress in the blogging world. We had posted at least four times a week and tried to keep it interesting. So what happened? I ran into a couple of snags. Where have we been and what have we been doing you ask? I'll explain and keep it simple. Now us girls, all know who this doctor is. All I have to say is for the $5000 deductible I just met, I could have paid him and really had something to "SHOW OFF". But sadly, instead.... This is all I have. Scars and staples from a spigalian hernia repair, an umbilical hernia repair, and an appendectomy.

I am actually shocked that I might post this. I had a small minor breakdown when the tape and dressing came off this morning. It must be the pain pills.

if only bart simpson was his friend

I found this cartoon and laughed for 5 minutes.

Another pet peeve

Today, I feel like I've accomplished plenty. Between watching 7 kids, I've managed to sleep in, do six loads of laundry, clean the house, upstairs and downstairs (I guess I should say straighten since I cleaned everything earlier this week), make two pair of pajamas, and now blog. Now that I've boosted me up, onto the blog story. Below is one pet peeve that I have of Jake's pajamas. Somehow they end up three inches too short.I know that pajamas aren't seen and are only worn to bed. But seeing this every night really bugged me. I guess you can add that to my OCD list. So this morning I pulled out the flannel I bought over three years ago (on sale for a dollar) and was going to make him a pair that was long enough. After measuring him and it said to make a small, I figured he always bought a large and proceeded with the large. The results were hilarious. Both Jake and I could fit in them. So here is the second try. Mission accomplished. Tomorrow will be my pair. Although finding the size is another situation.....