Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: I love to laugh (Page 1 of 4)

Goofy? This is just our normal

January 31, 2014 / / 1 Comment


Natalie needed new glasses, so when I took her to get them, there was a LOT of trying on of glasses.

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And not just by Natalie.

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I might just have to get myself a pair, because I think I look cute in glasses.

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Natalie just kept laughing at me and said I looked like mushroom hat girl from the MERLIN show I did in the fall.

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Come ON. I don’t look THAT silly. I was TRYING to look goofy in those glasses.

Whatever.

Anther day, the kids were looking for jerseys for our ward’s youth conference. The theme was “Same team, different Jersey”. Megan decided to put ALL of her sports jerseys on. At the same time.
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She then took each of those shirts off. Talk about goofy.
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Then there’s the time Megan said “I need something RANDOM to use in an art project.” After suggesting a few random things around the house, I pulled out these copper pans I have been saving forever. I bought a few random copper bakeware things that I thought I would use in decorating. But didn’t.

But they could make great DEVO hats.

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Or princess buns?

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Or a Madonna bra.

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They didn’t know what I was even talking about on that one. I tried to explain it.

Or there was the time I ripped off a shirt Natalie was wearing. It was falling apart. I just helped it along.
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We might sometimes do goofy things, like when I made everyone at the family party draw on paper plates on their heads.

And then there’s the crazy boys. But they are always goofy.

Am I right?

We even have goofy pets. Since it’s been cold, the chickens seem to think it’s cool to hang out on the porch. Maybe they like the sun, or maybe they just like to watch the humans, I don’t know.

So, yeah. We’re goofy. We like to take silly pictures, and love to have fun.

Costume Party!

October 29, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Saturday evening we hosted a costume party for the Scarlet Pimpernel crowd–or whoever wanted to come. It wasn’t my idea, but a couple of the girls from the play were discussing how fun it would be to have a sing-a-long party, and asked if anyone had a place big enough for a crowd, and who had a piano, etc. I did not volunteer because I hosted the last party we had with this group, but one of the girls asked if I would be willing to have it at my house again. They would “plan” it, and could I just provide the house. Less pressure and work for me, right?

Well, we still had to clean the house. I didn’t make a ton of food, because I wasn’t in charge, and I thought she had made it clear to people that they were supposed to bring food. Ahem. These are mostly college students we are talking about, so there was very little food that was brought.But no one seemed to mind that there wasn’t a ton of food, or if the food that was there wasn’t very great or fancy.

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Here’s Ryan. He’s thrilled about a-dressing up (can you guess his costume) and b- having a bunch of loud theater people taking over the house.

After the mingling and hugs and “YOU LOOK SO CUTE!”s, we settled in to play some games. We had apples to apples going, and then some people started singing show tunes in the other room with the piano.

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We had some fun costumes! My friend Justin picked up my camera, as he tends to do, and took a bunch of lovely random pictures.
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This was us playing “match that face” or something like that. You would look at the picture taken before yours and try to match the expression. Yeah, I know they are sideways. Whatever.

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This is my favorite picture of everyone in their costumes.

We ended with a couple of rousing games of ENCORE, and if you’ve never played that with a bunch of musical theater people, you really should. We do know a lot of songs, but the pressure! When put on the spot, the brain just seems to sputter and fart, not coming up with the requisite song, like a song with the word “KISS” in it. We went back and forth on that one for a long time, until our team finally couldn’t think of another one. Of course, LATER, every song in the world seemed to have the word Kiss in it.

It was a fun night with friends, and I’m glad we could host it at our house.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Rain, Slip and Slide

September 8, 2013 / / 1 Comment

Saturday.

John’s Birthday party.

Decided to rent a bounce house or inflate a slide because that would be an easy activity for the boys, and I found a deal on KSL for a slide rental.

When the guy came to set it up, it was sunny and hot, and the kids were excited to give it a try.

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We started the party with just a few kids, since some of them had said they would be late or had to leave early because of football games and such. Since John wanted to have a “Mustache” party, we did the mustache things first.
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When we went outside to slide, it wasn’t quite as bright and sunny, and there were dark clouds off to the west. No worries, though.

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For we had boys and we had a slide and we had water. What could be more fun?
There was lots of jumping and climbing and twisting and turning and splashing. Such fun.

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Soon the skies began to darken even more and we saw lightning a short distance away.
Not wanting to have to explain to any of the mothers why we let her child be hit by lightning instead of bringing him back inside, we reluctantly made them get off the slide and come in.

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The wind was getting quite strong, and one boy was just shivering. I wasn’t cold, but then again, I wasn’t wet.

We ended the party inside, turning on the Three Amigos, and the kids dried off and were all happy. Party deemed a success, even though only half of the invited guests came and we only got about an hour of slide time in. I was a bit ticked off, because even with the deal, that slide had not been cheap, and I wanted to be using it ALL afternoon with the other kids and their friends.

Even worse, DARK clouds soon covered the area, and I read online about areas in Alpine being evacuated due to flooding. Ugh. We had another party scheduled to start soon. I had invited the cast of Scarlet Pimpernel over for a backyard barbeque. Not much dry backyard after the rain started pouring.

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But I went online and reassured everyone in the group that the party could still happen, we would just have to move it inside. I had told them earlier about the large water slide, and to bring their suits, and one of the guys replied that he thought it would be fun to go down the slide, even in the rain. Ha.

Well, even through the rain and wind, they came, and we ended up having a houseful of loud, funny, theater people. My family, not used to being around such a group, kind of cowered in the corner, but they warmed up eventually.

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Once the rain subsided a bit, we were able to get the meat on the grill, and eventually we had a prayer and ‘started’ dinner (even though everyone had already been eating all the chips and food that was on the counter already).

Soon, the rain was just a drizzle and I decided to plug that slide back in. Three of the guys ripped off their clothes to their swim suits underneath and jumped at the chance to go down that slide, even though it was kind of dark and kind of cold.

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I should have played around with my camera settings because it was hard to capture any good images with them moving so fast and it getting dark. But let me just say that there were some spectacular jumps.
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Even people who did NOT bring swim suits or a change of clothes had to try it out, and soon we had 10-15 people going down that slide. One of them was John, who got to do round two of his slide party, I guess.

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Eventually the wind kicked up again and it was just plain cold. And dark, so we deflated the slide and went inside to finish the party.

It was really fun. Even after all the food was gone, people still stayed to play games, watch a movie, or just talk.
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We had a game of Settlers of Catan downstairs, Fooseball matches going on, and a big game of BANG upstairs.

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It really was fun. The day, even though it was not what I had planned and not the best weather conditions, was great. We managed to have LOTS of fun, rain or shine. I’m glad my Pimpernel friends braved the rain to come all the way out to Highland. When the show ended, I knew I would miss those friendships, and I told one of them that I just needed people to come to my house and entertain me, and that’s what they did.

Why are you …so…old?

July 10, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Being in a play with a bunch of young people. Hmm.

My first impression of this cast was, WOW, what talent. Seriously, the first time we sang Madame Guillotine together, I was blown away by how we sounded. And there was so much LESS time wasted, without a bunch of little kids. Those choral rehearsals were really great. But as I looked around, I thought that only a couple of these people looked old enough to be married, let alone have children. Let’s face it, having little kids is not really conducive to spending almost every night at rehearsal. Why do you think it took me until I was nearly 40 to try out for community theater? Family. I’m not sayin I don’t love my family, I DEFINITELY love my family more than anything in the world, and if they would do theater with me, I would LOVE that. And isn’t it great that I can still do theater even after spending all those years as a stay at home mom?

Anyway, I digress. A lot of people in the cast are high school or college kids. While waiting out a scene or learning blocking, they CANNOT a-sit still or b-shut up. Honestly. For a ball scene, they put me with this one guy, I’ll call him E. He and this other guy, who we shall call B, talk, talk, talk, through the whole scene. And not just talking, it’s Lord of the Rings impersonations, acting out light saber battles, quoting lines from OTHER movies that I couldn’t place, and all manner of other things. They are entertaining, but if I’m trying to listen or learn dance steps, it’s annoying. The director came by and said, “Does he EVER stop talking?” I shook my head no. He’s probably bummed that he has to have ME as a partner, when there are so many cute girls that he COULD be flirting with, had he only been paired up with them instead. Oh, well. He did talk TO ME long enough to mention that he had met a really neat girl at the singles ward the other day. I asked if he had asked her out and he said he did. Then he said she came over to his house and they talked. I was quick to remind him that hanging out at your house (or your parent’s house) is NOT a date, and he needed to take her somewhere to do something. Not that he asked for my advice or anything, but as a mother, I figure it’s my job to point that out to him.

Speaking of dancing, I was actually pleased that the choreographer at least PUT me in that scene. As she was assigning everyone places for the ball scene, she came by and said, “Are you ok to dance?” to me. Really? I know that I’m old and fat and out of shape and I didn’t do great on my dance audition, but I CAN learn the simple steps to a ball dance, thank you very much. I was afraid that she would purposely NEVER put me in a scene with any dancing. The other big group number, Madame Guillotine, they have me as a prisoner heading to the guillotine, while almost everyone else does this amazing dance and sings the song. We prisoners don’t even get to sing the song, and it’s the best song in the show. Darn. But, I shouldn’t complain, it’s time on stage, right? I was afraid that she totally hated me and wasn’t going to put me in ANY dances at all, but thankfully it’s not that bad.

There’s one other guy who is older than me. Did I mention that I knew him from BYU? I got a chance to chat with him a bit last night, and he did remember that we went out a couple of times back then. He even brought it up, so that’s good to know he does remember me. When we were learning the ballroom scene, he actually spoke up and said that she was going too fast for him to remember all these steps, and could she make sure to say the counts. I was glad he said something, because I was feeling the same way, but was far too insecure to pipe up and say anything like that.

Last night we were blocking a scene where Percy and his men help some prisoners escape. It’s all set to music, no singing, and the director and choreographer had to figure out what was going on when, place everyone, rehearse, etc. I am not a prisoner in this scene, rather in the “mob” that is there to watch the execution. We mob members don’t really do much in the scene except give Percy’s men a place to hide, so it was really boring for us. And I got to stand near some OTHER young people and listen to their conversations. It’s so weird to be transported back to the drama world. Theater people are a unique brand of people. They want to be funny, likeable, and the center of attention. I don’t really fit in with them, as again, I’m old, but I do join in their conversations sometimes. I’m trying to learn people’s names each time I go to rehearsal. Most of the girls seem nice, and the boys are the ones that are always goofing off and never stop goofing off. Last night seemed like a huge waste of time to everyone who was in ‘the mob’, but at the end, the director had us all sit and said, “THANK you so much for your cooperation. This was a difficult scene, and we were so worried about getting it right, but you’ve all done a marvelous job, doing what you were told, and not complaining. I think you are a marvelous and talented cast, and I really enjoy working with you.” Wow. He must not have heard all the complaining that was going on in back in the mob.

So, while it is fun to be a part of this show, I am not really feeling like a part of the show, yet. I still feel quite like an outsider. An OLD outsider. But hopefully that feeling will go away as I meet more people. Maybe I’ll make them some cookies.

The story of the chainsaw and the neighbor

June 13, 2013 / / 1 Comment

The chainsaw.
It’s been in our garage for about a year, since Ryan used it to cut back the Russian Olive junk trees the bordered our back yard. His dad called and asked for it back, as he had some projects of his own to work on. But before he returned it, Ryan felt he should make good on a promise to our neighbor to cut down the dead tree that is on the edge of their yard, right off our driveway. This tree has been dead for some time, and with the wind in Highland, it’s just been leaning more and more to the South. Last year some time, this neighbor asked Ryan if he could borrow the chain saw, or maybe just asked Ryan if he would cut it down next time he was using the thing. I don’t know the details.

But Monday night we were planning to go visit Ryan’s parents, and return the chainsaw. But first, he decided to cut down that tree. He fired up the saw, and went at it, hacking down that tree.

Unfortunately, he did not inform the neighbor’s wife that he would be doing this. There she was, making dinner or whatever, when she hears this LOUD sound, and goes to the window to see what it was. To her HORROR, she sees what looks like an angry neighbor who is fed up with looking at this dead tree every time he pulls out of his driveway and is taking matters into his own hands. She went out and was flustered, until Ryan explained that he had talked to her husband and had agreed to take out this tree.

She said to me later, “I was SOOO embarrassed. I thought you had reached the point of frustration with us and the dead tree. It took every ounce of courage I had to go out to go out and talk to him. Seriously, I was mortified!”

Silly husband. Always go talk to the wife before doing work in other people’s yards.

What a weekend–Spring Break edition

April 3, 2013 / / 3 Comments

Friday–Birthday party for Larissa
Since it was her ONLY birthday in America, we had to throw a party for Larissa. There were about 12 kids there, including the family, and they were a casual, fun bunch, who were willing to play the silly games I had planned. When people first came, they went downstairs and played Fussball until I called them up to eat. Larissa loves salads, so I had a salad bar. I know, right? It was quite a spread, and it made her so happy. There was also pizza for the non-salad lovers.
salad bar

After they ate, I sent everyone outside for a rousing game of flour ball tag, where you throw nylon balls filled with flour at each other. It doesn’t hurt when you are hit, but it leaves a white mark. It’s like a softer gentler version of paint ball, and lots of fun.
flour tag

Then it was time for “Chubby Bunny”. Everyone has to stuff a marshmallow in their mouth and say “Chubby bunny”. The next round, another marshmallow, etc. Until the person gags, throws up, or spits out their marshmallows.
IT was funny and quite disgusting.

After that, we came inside and played a quieter game, called the pictionary telephone game. People write down a phrase, then pass it to the left, and that person has to DRAW that phrase, and cover up the written phrase. The next person has to write whatever it was the person in front of them drew, and then pass. They came up with some pretty weird interpretations.

There were also Charades, lots of talking, a movie, presents,and, of course, cake and ice cream. Nothing fancy in the cake department, I just made Texas Sheet cake.

The kids all seemed to have a great time. I hovered, wandering in and out of the family room while they were watching a movie, cleaning up and putting things away. At 11:00, I thought everyone would go home, but they were still laughing and talking. One of Larissa’s friends even ASKED a boy out to the upcoming spring fling. She was all casual about it, like she asks boys out every day. So proud of her! After the boys left, I encouraged the girls to ALL take her example and ask boys out. You should have heard their reaction to that. Ha. At 11:30, I did make everyone go home. Ryan wasn’t home, or I would have let them stay up later, but I was just SO tired, I had to go to bed.

(A little pat on the back for me, Larissa told me that was the best Birthday party she’d EVER had. Of course, she also told me that she hasn’t had a party since she was about 8, so the bar was set pretty low.)

Saturday–Young Women Broadcast
On Saturday, Natalie had to get ready to go to the conference center to sing in the YW broadcast. Many of the girls in our stake had been asked to sing in the choir for the broadcast, and they have been preparing and rehearsing for over a month now. It’s been a fabulous experience for them, and I’m so glad Natalie was able to participate.

She had to have her hair all curled and meet her carpool by 11:15. I took the other girls up at 3:30, and we had some time to wander through temple square a bit before we took our seats in the conference center. I forgot my camera, but she looked lovely in her yellow.
The meeting was wonderful. I paid so much more attention to the talks, and the music was SO beautiful! I wish we could do that every single year!

Afterwards, when we had met up with Natalie and gotten out of the parking garage, we met our friends over at Crown Burger. It was SO fun to let the girls all sit together and chat, and I had a chance to talk to some of my dear friends. Since it was Larissa’s actual birthday, I got the girls to sing to her, and she was thoroughly embarrassed.

Sunday–Easter,
Sunday morning came early for this girl. I had to be up at the Tabernacle by 7:30 am to prepare for the Easter Broadcast.
I can’t seem to get the video embedded, but you can watch it HERE, if you want.

The Bells played one song without the choir, and two songs with the choir. It was such a beautiful program, all about Easter and rebirth. My sister, Amy, even drew the artwork for the Spoken Word, so that was cool that we could both be involved in the broadcast on the same week. Even though I LOVE ringing with the choir and will take any opportunity to do that, it’s SO exhausting. By the time I come home at 11:30, I feel like I’ve put in a full day’s work, and I still have to go to church. I made it for the last part of sacrament meeting and nursery, of course. The kids were a little bit hyper, and one sweet little girl told Ryan, “I am so mad at you!” when he told her to stop grabbing toys from another child. They make me laugh.

At home, I left instructions for the kids to set up another table and finish the devilled eggs.
I HAD to have a little nap. Even after my nap, I was still tired and grumpy, which isn’t the best combination when you are trying to get the house cleaned up and food ready for a large gathering. But we got the tables set up in the basement and the kitchen, made the funeral potatoes, and then people started arriving.

Between the three of us girls in my family, we have about 24 kids. Really. So, with adults and grandparents, we had 35 people there, (give or take a few small ones). Luckily, I had pre-filled a LOT of eggs for our Easter egg hunt, and each of the kids was able to find 5-9 eggs.

The weather was nice, too, which was a relief, because I didn’t think I could find that many hiding places for eggs inside the house.

The kids had fun getting together with their cousins, and we all enjoyed talking and eating together with family.

Monday-Spring Break

Monday morning was the start of our Spring Break, which meant no school and we could all sleep in, thank goodness!
I started the day off with some weed pulling, then took the kids to Tracy Aviary.

We took an abundance of bird pictures.


Even though it wasn’t really warm and it was sprinkling rain, we had a nice time.

After lunch, I took the kids to Sheels, the HUGE new sporting goods store. Good thing my camera battery was dead, or I would post pictures of John and Megan on time out sitting outside the store. Seriously, kids, stop fighting and acting like brats, or I will never take you anywhere every again!

Anyway, once inside, everyone had a good time, and they especially liked testing out the exercise bikes.

That night Ryan and I met some friends at the Hale Center Theater in Orem for a great night at the theater. We saw Civil War, a musical. Kind of a downer of a subject for a musical, but it was very well done, and there were some excellent songs. I was afraid Ryan would totally hate it because of his reaction to Les Mis was “too much singing and too depressing”, but he made it through this one. A big thanks to our friends Tammy and Marin who invited us, it was a great night.

So, that was our big exhausting weekend! Wow, right? Maybe that’s why on Tuesday, after Larissa left to go to Moab with friends, and I took Megan shopping for some much needed clothes for her birthday, I fell asleep on the couch while watching Mission Impossible.

Halloween 2012

November 1, 2012 / / 5 Comments

Oh the Halloween festivities are so much fun!

Between the parties, the house decorating, the costumes and the candy, it’s no wonder we are exhausted.

We did the pumpkin carving last week when it was still cold, and as you can see, even the birds got into the fun. This is new for Larissa, so she was excited to to carve a pumpkin!

Saturday was our ward party and trunk or treat. Instead of candy, I gave out hot chocolate, and that was a big hit.

I was excited to dress up as Maleficent, from sleeping beauty. Can you believe some kids didn’t know who I was?

On Monday, I took the girls to Gardner Village to see the witches. They all played along and wore witch hats!

We had some fun shopping and seeing all the witches and Halloween decor. Not to complain, but it was almost too warm.

Halloween was a wonderful warm day. So nice, in fact, that Ryan decided to skip the festivities at work and stay home and work on his chicken house project.

I would never complain about a job well done, but I think he’s going a little bit overboard on this project. He might just install a tv in there and keep it for himself!

Those are the nesting boxes on one side, and there’s a feed “trough” on the other side. I helped with some caulking and priming before I had to dress up and go to John’s school party.

First we played the mummy wrap game, with two teams wrapping their friend up in TP. It was close, but the girls were the winners.

My game was the cup stack, and I had each kid try to stack the 36 cups in one minute.

Not many could do it. Perhaps I should have a made it a bit easier for them and had less cups to stack, but they still had fun, even if they didn’t all ‘win’.

By the time the party was over, I was feeling very sick, and starting to rethink our hugely busy plan for the rest of the afternoon. I LOVE Halloween, and I really want to do ALL the fun stuff we can possibly do, so we usually grab the kids right after school and go trick-or-treat at Ryan’s work. When I told him I wasn’t doing well, and didn’t want to go to his work, he said he didn’t really want to take the kids, and he didn’t care if we went or not. I knew the kids would be disappointed, but I broke the news to them that we wouldn’t be doing that activity, and no one threw anything at me, at least. I went upstairs and had a tiny nap, hoping to gather a little energy.

After a little bit of dinner, the kids were excited to go out.
They were all in costume, and the house was bedecked in Halloweeniness.

In case you can’t tell, we had the tootsie pop owl, pikachu, a cereal killer, spider man (although he changed several times throughout the day), and a hippie.

The kids all went out in groups, with friends or sisters, and I didn’t go out with any of them. I didn’t even want to go over to our neighbor’s annual donut night. I was just wiped out and not feeling good. I stayed close to the door and gave out candy to all the little trick-or-treaters, but I still felt like I was missing out on the festivities a little bit.

Megan and Larissa ended up going out later that night to movie parties, but everyone ended up safe and sound. Even though it was a middle of the week holiday, everyone got their share of fun! (Jenna and I even have a mother daughter costume party coming up this Saturday, so I guess it’s not time to put the costumes away JUST yet).

I hope you also enjoyed your Halloween, wherever you were.

What the heck?

April 24, 2012 / / 12 Comments

As I was walking out of church on Sunday, I took my sunglasses out of my bag and put them on. In doing this, the frame cracked and one of the lenses fell to the ground. What the heck? Those glasses aren’t even that old!

As a fair skinned person of the blue eyed persuasion, I do not leave the house without sunglasses. I keep a pair in my purse, a pair in the car, and I have multiple pairs of glasses at home. I buy them whenever I can find them on sale. Kohl’s often has sunglasses on clearance, so when I can find them for $5 or less, I will buy a few pairs. I do not buy expensive, fancy, designer sunglasses. What would be the point? I would just scratch, break or lose them within two months, and then I would be out $30-$50 bucks instead of $5-$10. Although if you wanted to send me some really nice shades, I would promise to do my best to take care of them.

Irritated with my dumb glasses and wondering if I could somehow fix them and make them wearable again, I put them on anyway.

My kids thought that was the FUNNIEST thing ever, and that I was wearing them merely to entertain them. Right. I wore them home. Because otherwise I would squinting like a…like a something that squints. The kids roared with laughter all the way home. I wore the glasses inside.
“Hey, these are GREAT!” I said, ” I can wear them inside AND outside, and my eyes just adjust!”
Busting up with laughter, the kids said it looked more like I was a pirate wearing an eye patch. They even HAD to tell Dad all about it when he got home later that day. Ha, Ha, very funny.

Whatever.
So I resigned myself to giving these ones up and wearing my next back-up pair.

Linking up to Jenny Matlock Alphabee Thursday.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 14, 2012 / / 2 Comments

It’s the day of pink hearts and frosted cookies!

To get ready for valentine’s day, we made some boxes, we decorated, we made cookies!

(This is Jenna’s owl box. I didn’t get a picture of it all finished, but it has cute wings now.)

(This is John’s cow that he painted, but then was sad when his teacher said they didn’t have to make valentine boxes, so he didn’t even get to take it to school.)

(This is how my kitchen table looks when the kids work on projects like this.)


For some of the teachers and friends, we made these love potions. Can you tell what the drink is?

I then made some that were caffeine free.

I even decided to decorate a little bit for the day of hearts.

I loved when I saw ornaments hanging from a chandelier for Christmas, so I thought, why not do that for another holiday? It looks better then it shows in the picture.

I put a little heart garland on the banister.
And put a few heart and love things on the table in the hall.

That is also where I decided to hang the painting that my sister did for me. I don’t love the framing job (since I kind of did it with stuff that was around the house), but I hope I can do a better job with it soon. I still love the painting, though, even if I’m not thrilled with how I framed it.

For the school party, I plan on playing Valentine Bingo, and Heart Lava. I’ll have to post pictures later.


Oh, and how about this sweet valentine card for my honey?

And tonight–Lady Antebellum Concert! Oh, yeah!

I hope you have a fun holiday with YOUR loved ones!

Can I help it if I prefer FREE?

February 9, 2012 / / 4 Comments

We are planning a trip for spring break. A trip to Nauvoo to see some LDS church history sights and play and have fun with the family. Thankfully, we were able to book the flights using miles from Ryan’s extensive traveling (Thanks, Ryan’s job!), and we’re getting some pretty decent deals on hotels.

As we were talking about the trip, hubby said to me, “Now don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but…..(long awkward pause) maybe you could relax a little bit on the trip, and….maybe let the kids order drinks once in a while.”

What? Are you calling me cheap?!

Well, yes, I AM cheap, or as we in the cheap community like to call it…”Frugal”. I do admit that I like to win my vacations instead of pay for them; if it’s possible to use a coupon at a restaurant, I will try it; and I have a frequent diners card for just about every place we go to eat. Is there anything wrong with that? We try to stay at hotels with free breakfast, and if not, then we end up keeping cereal and milk and granola bars and oatmeal at the hotel to avoid the cost of eating out for breakfast. And drinks! Don’t even get me started about the mark-up on drinks! If everyone in my family orders a soda at $1.99 to go with their meal, that’s an extra $14 added to the meal. I can’t change my personality just because I’m on vacation!

Once when in San Diego, we went to a yummy yogurt place, and with the 7 of us and my parents, we filled up an entire punch card. So, we let Cole get the free $5 worth of yogurt right then, since we were leaving in the morning and most likely never coming back to that place to use our rewards card. He piled on the toppings and enjoyed a yogurt overload. Hey, there are perks to being the only teenager on vacation, you get to be the designated glutton!

We all laugh about the time that we were at Disneyland, and I used the free birthday tortillas from the Mission tortilla factory to make pb & j roll ups, but the jelly all smooshed out of the rolled up tortillas and ended up in a huge sticky mess in the bag. Fun memories!

Of course, nothing can compare to the cheapness in college. Some friends and I went to Disneyland, and instead of buy ANY food in the park, we had brought Captain Crunch cereal, bread, and peanut butter. Halfway through the day, we trooped out to the car, and ate our cruchilicious-peanutbuttery feast. My aunt, who was Disneylanding with us that day, just laughed and laughed at our cheapness.

And sporting events? I can’t say we NEVER go unless they are free, but that’s pretty close of an assessment. Go, Jazz! Same thing with concerts. I’m ok sitting in the nosebleed section to see a concert (Lady A next week–so excited!), although I must admit that those 2nd row seats to see Michael Buble were pretty sweet. I do pay full ticket price for Broadway (or touring) musicals, if I have to. I guess I do have that weakness. I mean, I TRY to win tickets, but it doesn’t always work out for me.

But I did listen to him and agreed that I would try to not stress out about money while on vacation. If that means paying for some things in advance and setting aside a certain amount of cash to use for entertainment and eating out, then I can get on board. Or maybe I just let him pay for everything and not look at receipts (or menus) so that I’m blissfully unaware of how much we are spending. Nope, can’t do that.

I can’t be the only one who tries to save money even while on vacation. How do you do it? Do you just get into that “I’m on vacation” mentality and spend with reckless abandon? Or, like me, do you still try to keep it simple and not go all extravagant even though you are on vacation?

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