Left in the Car

I had the worst memory lapse event today.

I stopped at the grocery store after I dropped my little guys off at preschool and picked up:

4 gallons of milk,

2 frozen pizzas,

an 11 pound turkey,

about a half dozen bags of chips (they were on sale),

and the makings for a banana cream pie (including Cool Whip).

When I got home, I walked into the house with my purse and my coat and promptly started working on the bills. After 2 hours (probably more like 2 and a half), I realized I still had groceries in the back of my car!!!

Luckily, East Tennessee has hit a cold spell.

The turkey was still frozen, the milk still cold to the touch.

The cheese on the pizza wasn't frosty anymore and the Cool Whip was no longer firm,

but I think I was able to salvage it all.

Whew!!

Tastes like Chicken

Spencer's favorite Halloween candy is Tootsie Rolls. He likes the long skinny ones the best. He has dropped a few in his pocket the last few days as we leave the house and then brings them out as we are driving down the road.

Today after preschool, he opened a Tootsie Roll and was flattening it out and playing with it, preparing it to eat. He took a bite of his flat Tootsie Roll and said, "Yum, tastes like chicken.".

I've tasted rattlesnake before and I know for a fact IT tastes like chicken, but never have I bit into a Tootsie Roll and thought, "Yum, it tastes like chicken.".

I wonder where he heard that phrase???

Learning to Read

Tonight we were having a skipping lesson at our house.

Hannah and Spencer haven't quite mastered that skill yet.

Todd was explaining how learning to skip helps you learn how to read.

We soon found out that Christian doesn't know how to skip properly either.

Todd asked how Christian had learned to read at the age of 3 if he didn't know how to skip.

So we were trying to show all 3 of them how to step, hop, switch.

Spencer got to the point that he was doing it in VERY slow motion.

He was so excited he did his little victory dance and then shouted out,

"Yeah, now I can read books without pictures!"

What a kid.

Halloween costumes

I'm cleaning out the costume closet and totes. Watch this blog for the next few days and you might find something that would work perfectly for your child for Halloween this year. I decided to post these on my blog because I spent almost 2 and a half hours today trying to post 1 item on ebay. My internet ended up dumping all 5 of my internet explorer windows and left me back at the beginning. So I threw up my hands and said,
"There's got to be an easier way."
This is our Circus (quite literally) Series. Below you will find the costumes that I'm selling from this "series", along with sizes and costume description. Hope you enjoy!

Size 4T Elephant Costume

I made this costume with gray fleece and felt embellishments. The headpiece is separate from the body. The trunk and tusks attach with a velcro closure under the chin. The headpiece is also lined with a light gray cotton. The costume body has a full zipper in the back. This would be perfect for all you Alabama fans (think RollTide). I'm asking $35.00 for this costume. It's been worn for 2 Halloween's and still in good condition.

Size 10-12 Gypsy/Fortune Teller Costume

I made this costume with satin. It comes with a 3 tiered skirt of hot pink and green, the white satin blouse, and a matching green satin scarf that can be used as a belt or a headpiece. The skirt has an elastic waist that would fit up to a 30 inch waist. This costume has been worn for 3 Halloweens but still in great condition. Asking $40.00 for it.


Size 8/10 for full length or a 10/12 for knee length Pink/Purple Clown Costume

I made this costume out of co-ordinating fabrics. A pink and purple both with lime green stars. White rickrack around the bottom of the legs and arms. A full zipper runs up the back with a ribbon tied drawstring to keep the neck closed. This costume was worn for 2 Halloweens. I had a neck piece but the lime green boa I had glued on it didn't fair well through the wash after it got face paint on it. The clown nose is not included but I do have the beanie/propeller hat and a pair of oversized clown shoes I'm ready to part with. The shoes have been worn once. I'm asking $12.00 for the costume, $3.00 for the hat, and $7.00 for the shoes. All pieces are in great condition.

1T-2T Store bought Tiger Costume

This costume I bought and it's only been worn once (for the pictured Halloween). The headpiece is attached making this a one piece costume with a front zipper (pretty heavy duty). It also has attached shoe covers and attached mittens on a string if you need to keep your little one warm. I'm asking $15.00 for this costume. Costume in like-new condition.

And lastly, the red vest that Russell is wearing is for sale also. I just couldn't get the picture to load correctly. It is red sequined satin trimmed around the bottom with black trim and gold hanging circles and lined with red satin. He went as the lion tamer in this picture but we have used it for another Halloween as Dracula's vest under a black cape. The front of the vest is missing some of the sequins but wouldn't be noticable in the dark. It would fit a child between the sizes of 5-8. I'm asking $8.00.


If you are interested in any of the Circus costumes please leave me a comment on this post or you can leave me a message on Facebook.

Thanks for taking a look. I'll be listing my Wizard of Oz and Star Wars costumes in the next couple of days so please check back!

Hot Dogs.... Who knew???

I had this HORRIBLE smell coming from my fridge over the weekend. I had no idea what it was coming from. But everytime the fridge got opened,

OH, the SMELL!!!

I thought it might be the bowl full of tomatoes that got pushed to the back of the shelf. So I threw those out. Julie thought it was the tomatoes in the crisper. She threw those out.

But the smell persisted.

I refused to think it was the pork cubes I had just bought on Thursday. When I opened the pork to make dinner last night, THAT is exactly what it was!!!

I was not happy. My older kids had places to be. I needed dinner on the table soon. So I grabbed a couple of packages of hot dogs. I wasn't going to let the kids see what I was doing but when they saw me slicing hot dogs they wanted to know what was for dinner.

At first I wouldn't tell them.

But I've made this particular meal enough that just looking at the ingredients they knew what I was making. I told them I was using "Poor-Man's pork".

They were a little hesitant, as was I.

The consensus was......

They liked the "Poor-Man's pork" better than the plain pork cubes. They said it added more "zing" to the flavor of the meal. Even the Hubby liked the change.

Hot Dogs......Who knew?

Future's So Bright.....

Hannah and Spencer didn't graduate from Preschool yet, but they had

a Preschool End of Year Party.

It included singing, food, and mini-Olympics.
Here are pictures of Hannah and Spencer doing the sack race.

As part of the ceremonies, the teacher did a small write-up on each of the kids.

Here's what they had to say about Hannah: "Oh boy! There is too much to say about Hannah in one little paragraph. She is a determined little girl and it's Hannah's way or the highway. For instance, one day she decided who could play and who couldn't play in the dramatic play center. Hannah thinks she is in charge all the time, which leads us to believe she will be the first female county sheriff.

Here's what they said about Spencer:

"Spencer is such a cute kid who is always doing stuff to make teachers laugh. As soon as the gate opens to the playground, he is the first one on the swing. He is a loving, energetic kid with the cutest dimples. Spencer is always playing with tools, therefore we think he will design and build skyscrapers."

The teachers asked the kids what they wanted to do in the future.

I laughed when I read what my kids had to say.

Here is Hannah and Spencer with the Preschool "Director", Mrs. Beuhlman. My 5 youngest children have all had her as their preschool teacher. Unfortunately, Hannah and Spencer won't get to "graduate" with Mrs. B. as their teacher.

She retired this spring. We will miss her terribly.

Russell is a Bear.

Russell has earned his Bear Scout Badge.

He was awarded his badge at Pack Meeting back in May.

I'm very proud of that boy.

A Child's Prayer

My children have informed my that I need to update.

So here you go....

Spencer likes to say prayer.

He likes to be the one to pray at mealtime.

(We had to explain that everyone needed a chance to pray)

He reminds me to help him at bedtime.

He even likes to have a turn for family prayer.

What is the thing he is the MOST thankful for?

THE FOOD.

The first thing he says after he opens his prayer

in EVERY prayer he offers:

"Thankful for the food."

Picking out Granite

The time had arrived to pick out the countertops for the kitchen.

That meant we were one step closer to being done.

Hannah and Spencer went with Todd and I to the warehouse.

This is one of the slabs going in our kitchen.

We had to get 3.

1 for the island

1 for the media corner

1 for the bar/sink area.

This is the crane that moves all those heavy slabs of granite.

This is what Spencer's pointing to in the first picture.

His favorite part of the whole trip was watching this arm at work.

Twin Birthday

When there is two of them,

Gift ideas are sometimes are harder to come by.
We seemed to have winners all around this time!

Their own goggles for swimming this summer.

The requested pillow pets.

Some music for the car ride to preschool and back.

Cupcakes and ice cream in a cone.
That's Hannah's and Spencer's favorite way to eat cake and ice cream.


Happy Birthday, Babies!
(They will always be my babies)

Mayfield Dairy

Spring Break in Tennessee was a bit disappointing to start.

The weather was rainy and cloudy for the first few days.

Julie whined to me about it about 3 days in.

(like I could do anything about the weather).

My friend, Stephanie asked if we wanted to go to the Mayfield Dairy in Athens.

I had never been and having grown up on a dairy farm,

I thought the kids would enjoy it.

I also thought that being a dairy, we might actually see

how they milked the cows,

transported the milk to the factory to fill the jugs,

and then see the jugs being filled.

This was the closest we got to seeing any cows that day.

We did get to see the milk jug production room.

We also got to see them fill the jugs.

But alas, we couldn't take pictures in the plant.

I did however get a picture of the LOVELY hairnets

we all had to wear on our tour.

The ice cream at the end of the tour was the highlight of the trip.

And in true Southern Style, they have wooden rocking chairs

to sit on the front porch and enjoy your treat.

YUM!!

This sign made me laugh.

I read it as HOT meaning attractive.

Clearly NOT what it meant.

Insomnia

It's been almost 2 weeks since I had major surgery.

And with the exception of 3 of those nights, where I actually was able to get to sleep quickly,

I have had the worst case of

INSOMNIA!!!

It stinks for someone who likes her sleep as much as I do

to NOT be able to even get to sleep.

See that time at the bottom of this post?

Yep, that's what time it really was written and posted.

Any suggestions on how to break this trend would be greatly appreciated!

I really want a good night's sleep.

My Attempt at Cupcake Decorating

So, I already blogged about Christian's birthday this year.

Did I mention that we had a SuperHero Party?

We had everything from Princesses to SuperMario to

the more traditional Spiderman and Superman.

This is my attempt at SuperHero cupcakes...

It's suppose to look like Spiderman sitting on top of a slung web.

How'd I do?

Did I also mention that I made/decorated 24 of these things?

I have found over the years that cupcakes get eaten a whole lot faster

at our house than the traditional cake does.

Why is that??

PS: Thanks for the pictures, Rachel.

I'm going to have to look at your camera downloads a lot more often.

Our Lego Creator

Russell is always building new things with his Legos.

He has to be reminded on Sundays to get ready for church first.

Then he can play with the Legos until it's time to leave.

He used to say he wanted to be a Lego Creator(Designer) when he grew up.

Then Daddy told him that he could be more like an Engineer.

And build and create things that way.

That makes his Daddy proud.

This is Russell's Lego Rock Band.

Now if we can just get him to pick UP the Legos when he

gets done with his "designing".

It's Done!

This is an announcement to tell ya'll:

THE HARDWOOD IS DOWN!!

As of 8:45pm EST on Saturday, January 28th the hardwood is officially DONE!

(Now we move on to baseboards and cabinets!)

Christian turns 7

Christian had a few requests for his 7th birthday.

1. He wanted German Chocolate cake.

2. He wanted to invite all the boys from his school class+

all his friends from his church class+

a few friends from the neighborhood.

His invite list was the biggest we've EVER had (21 kids).

They didn't all come though.
Only about 12 of them did.

3. He wanted to eat at Jason's Deli for dinner.

4. He wanted a Nerf gun.

We had German Chocolate cupcakes and ate dinner at Jason's Deli.

Dad not only got him a Nerf gun, he got a Nerf Rapid Fire.

He might come to regret that purchase.

Happy Birthday Christian!!

Are we done yet?

Not quite.

First we ran out of the glue/sealant.

We had to go purchase 3 more buckets.

As we got into the living room, we ran out of flooring!

Todd had to pick up 4 more boxes of flooring.

It has to acclimate for a week.

I hope we can finish it this weekend!

But the walls are painted.

All the ding holes are filled.

The baseboard is sitting in my family room waiting to be painted.

And the cabinets will be ordered soon.

(Wouldn't that be a great Valentine's Day present?)

Why I haven't been posting

We've been busy at our house.

The Monday after Christmas we took all our Christmas stuff down

and the carpet started coming up.....

I got the job of pulling up all the carpet tack.

We also had to pull up the parque flooring in the foyer.

Todd rented a buffer to buff all the cement flooring to remove the glue residue.

Hopefully this is the last of the dust mess.

My entire downstairs has been in a state of dust since we started this project.

It doesn't seem to matter how much I dust,

there is always something else to do that adds more dust.

This is what the new floor looks like.

Please ignore the multi-colored wall underneath the microwave.

Todd assures me that I don't need to paint it as it will all be behind

backsplash and cabinets.

Snow Days

My kids returned to school today after 3 snow days.

I know some of you are wondering why my kids were out of school for 3 days because of the snow. We got 4 inches of snow on Sunday night/Monday morning. Here in Tennessee even that amount of snow leaves some roads dangerous to drive on.

For the first 2 days, my kids dressed up in snow gear and went outside and played.

We even got the youngest ones bundled up to go out.

On one of those days I put a pair of sweat pants

under Spencer's blue jeans for added warmth.

He left them under his pants the rest of the day.

When I asked if he wanted to take them off, he said, "It's fine, Mom.".

This morning I was helping Spencer get into the shower.

(it's his new favorite thing to do: shower by himself).

When he got to his underwear he announced that he had 2 pair of underwear on.

When I asked him why, he answered,

"Cuz 2 underwears keep me warm in the snow.".

What a character.