our costumes 2012, 2011, 2010

2012

Morticia and Gomez

2011

this one is with Kyson. . . .

2010

Halloween Pics to Get You Itchy!

At least when I see pics of Halloween, I get itchy to get makin' somethin'.

Last year, it got a bit much to keep up with my pics on here, so here we go again...

CJ, the bus driver, noticed someone new at our house.

It was ON....

The next day

we added 

another visiter....

a 6'0 DaddyMummy

When cold

days come, what's

a mummy to do?

Find a coat that fits. Kinzie was happy to see her

 brand new one getting used.

The next day was rainy, so head for cover...

Now, it was time for "the set up"

This is the DaddyMummy...

Then there is the MommyMummy... 

and the elf hat for no reason.

Here is the old fashioned ipod for a distraction...

While the real Mommy takes over the Mummy...

I could only tell this was ME,

because of the reflection in the window behind me. (the

shorts I was wearing.)

Here

is the scene.

We all know what happened next...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-H6dSd-LTk

An extra warm day in October

calls for

beach clothes...

The next day I felt inspired by the front page of the newspaper...

cops sneaking into a house.

My Grandma's house.

And, someone went to jail...

my cousin, haha. 

I had a nameplate on the shirt, but for reasons specific to a peaceful Thanksgiving Day, I will leave it off for the blog. :)

The next day, 

this was inspired by someone making 

a very rude remark to me on a public domain, 

Facebook...

The witch used to

have a nameplate on her cape that read:

HELLO

My Name Is

_ _ _ _ _. 

(name left off to protect my innocence...)

lollollol!

I took it off for the blog picture for reasons already mentioned.

:)

(But it was FUNNY!!!!!)

Time for a birthday party...

This was inspired by my kids 

always leaving their guitars on the floor!

Headhunter: 

can you see the shrunken head on a stick?

I have won a LOT of costume contests with this one...

Pumpkin Heads:

The day of the first swim meet....

The day before 

the day off of school 

for the opening of the deer hunt!

                              Kinzie kept asking me 
            all month to make one look like the bus driver.

So, the last day (Halloween) was a tribute to CJ, the bus driver.

He always wears a hat like this one when he drives the bus.

The Grim Reaper 

was for a preview for what was to come later that night.

Most kids walked by the grim reaper not thinking he was real till they touched him..... here is one such visitor...

This 

is 

any given 

Saturday

when the 

bus wasn't going

by...

I told you last year how we "owned" the trunk-or-treat.

Here it is again:

 black-light glowed against the baby mummy 

and the skeleton 

and a pile of bones in the car. 

A strand of lighted bones in there as well.

The cauldrons 

added nice lighting for the 

Indy Man 

handing out candy out of an

 Indiana Jones hat (from Disneyland).

                                         
                                           So cuuute!

 

Are you itchy yet?

I have been for at least 2 MONTHS!!!!!

TWELVE!

NOT POSSIBLE!

"I Can't Take That Snoring!"

Said my 5-yr-old about her 9-yr-old sister.

They share a room, and Kams is trying to talk me into letting her sleep in my room.

LOL

"I can't take that snoring."

Me: giggling, cause she says such maturish, cutesie things sometimes out of nowhere.

"No! Seriously, Mom! You need to get her some of dat snoring medicine dat I see on TV, dat is white and is shaped like a U........." voice goes up at the end, because she is not done trying to convince me that the medicine will cure her sister. 

"It works, it really does!"

LOL

They called US!

The first time anyone in this "newly assigned ward" has called us about scout advancement.

Kort's new leaders scheduled him a Board of Review just for HIM.

That means he has now advanced the 2 badges he should have advanced 4 months ago if he had a leader that gave a dang and passed things off. (Certain things in this scout group cannot be passed off except for with the scout group. If the leader does not have the group do those things. No one in the group can advance. Which is the case with the certain leader I have complained about.)

They even told him all he needs is a leadership position to advance to star. Where were these guys a year ago.

(Oh, yeah. A year ago, we had a Bishop that did not give a dang about scouts. Several of us complained about the 11-yr-old scout leader several times, but no one cared and no one did anything about it. We have a new Bishop now. He cares about scouting.)

We have actually been in this ward for 3 years, so we're not really that new. We've been here long enough that SOMEONE should have been calling us to set up Boards of Review for Kort. I had to hunt down a day and time for his first one.

So, now he is a 1st Class scout on his way to Star.

Luckily, they finally have a 12-yr-old Scout Leader that cares about his calling. I hear it's been years since this ward has had one. (New Bishop, remember)

Kort even has a hike/campout 3 days after his birthday!!!!!!!

No pressure for No. 4

I have 3 sons who earned their Eagle Scout Award while they were 12.

My last son is 11. Can he do it, too?

No!

Scouts has been pretty pathetic in our newly assigned ward.

When he got into the New Scouts, the leader was not even holding scouts
.
The only two boys already in the group had football practice on the "ONLY" night the scout leader could hold scouts, so they took two months off from having scouts.

Then, when baseball season started in the spring, he took two months off to coach a Little League baseball team.

What the Freak? Right?

Not to mention all the other times he cancelled for one reason or another: sick, no assistant (without even calling my hubby to see if he could fill in after we had told him several times that he could), busy (without even calling my hubby to see if he could fill in), etc.

I was warned by another scout's mom that there would be campouts planned, and then the guy would just not show up. NO WAY! That's not possible.

But guess what? It happened exactly like that. He told the boys on a Tuesday to be at the church on Saturday morning. Then, they'd call him to see why he wasn't there. He forgot!

Pathetic! (He was in the calling for about 8 months with my son.)

The next leader was a father of one of the boys, (which is almost the only way to guarantee a good 11-yr-old leader). His first quote was that there would NOT BE ANY cancelled scouts meetings.

Then, he had to work the next 3 weeks on the night of scouts and had to cancel.

He did actually care about getting the boys' books up to date, and getting them to pass off certain things, but the guy had to work on the night of scouts a lot. He got released after just a couple of months, cause he just could not fit it in with his work schedule.

Now, we have probably the best guy in the ward doing this group of scouts. And the 2nd best guy is now the assistant.

What the Freak?!!!!!

My boy has only got 2 weeks left till he turns 12!

So, so, so, so, SO VERY FRUSTRATING!

All my boys were Stars by now.

My 11 yr old has not had a scoutmaster conference or board of review for even his 2nd class or his 1st class. He got his Tenderfoot (thanks to me) 10 months ago. (Just so you know, the next level after 1st class is Star, so my other boys were 4 MONTHS ahead of where this one is now.)





Just to put into perspective where my frustration level is: the scout leader from a year ago has a son that is just getting into this 11-yr-old scout program. His son will be benefitting from our ward's BEST LEADERS and getting what he refused to give to MY SON.

Hubby used to be over 11-yr-olds a few years back, and he regularly had several of his scout group clear to STAR before they turned 12. Like 8 of the 10 scouts were to a Star! It is really NOT HARD! All he has to do is just NOT CANCEL for 2 months at a time.

So, here we go. Kort has NO chance of getting his Eagle before he turns 13 like his brothers did.

I hate it when something important to me is just taken so flippantly by somone who has nothing at stake, like a son in the program to give him motivation.

It is just out of our hands, and it just ticks me off.

PS I spent several years busting my butt to help eveybody elses boys through scouts, and now it's my turn to receive the favor, and the "turn-abouts-fair-play" did not happen for me.

All Kort has left to get his Star is serve 4 months as a leadership position, and do some service projects. That is it. Well, besides to have a Board of Review for the other two advancements.

Pathetic.

Silly Sons!

This is Kashton. He is a Junior in high school.

This is called a "liberty" or a "lib". 

This skill is a requirement to land a spot

on any university cheerleading

team.

I found out that there are only 8 more days till

Super Smash Bros. 4

comes out.

Guess how I found out?

I found Kortlen using his countdown calendar and asked him what he was counting down.

LOL

Funeral today.

So, I am going to a funeral today with my mom.

It turns out that the bank robber was the SON of my mom's BEST FRIEND of 30 years.

I knew his mom pretty well, cause of my mom's acquaintance with her. I only knew him for a short time 30 years ago.

I have a place inside my heart that died that day with this man. My heart hurts so bad for the pain and suffering that his mom has to go through because of his actions.

I know he was in a bad place in his life. I know he was very desperate.

But, none of that takes away the pain I feel on behalf of his mother, his two sons, his tons of siblings, and his fathers.

Sad day. :(

Hubs calls me on the phone

and he wants me to see if I can hear anything on my scanner.

Nope, my scanner has not picked that stuff up for years. I think they have a new system and my scanner is too old.

He was sitting at the stoplight by Summit waiting to turn left to come home, when 4 cop cars go FLYING by headed to the area where we live.

Nope, nothing. I don't even hear cop cars.

Next thing we know, ALL of my kids' schools are on "LOCK OUT", and no one is allowed to leave.

Then, all the news sourced on facebook start lighting up. I found a scanner website and listened intently from inside my house. (with the doors locked) And with a gun in hubby's pocket. : )

The helicopters were flying over my house for an hour trying to locate this bank robber who was heavily armed. I went outside and watched all 3 helicopters flying around my neighborhood.


They knew he was along the river hiding in the trees. I heard that they had searched the paintball area (which is only .5 miles from my house). I heard they searched the out buildings down by the river and even found a transient camp.

These are so close to my house that I was nervous to even go outside. I so bad wanted to go help look for him, but when the scanner said he had a sawed off shotgun and a high caliber hand gun, I decided not to. He had already been shooting at the cops as they chased him right past two schools. One of the bullets even HIT a school! That school is across the river from me, but it is less than .5  miles from my house.  EECK

The scanner went silent for about 20 minutes, but when it came back on the guy had been shot dead.

It turns out that the helicopters were

focusing in on that street a mile away

where you see them in the video.

Within 3-5 minutes of this video

is when the robber was shot dead.

This heli over my head is on it's way

over to the suspect's location.

All my kids were still at school. One was supposed to be playing in a volleyball game across town away from the lock down. One was supposed to be at work. Neither of them were able to leave.

When the volleyball team finally arrived, the SC team told them they were glad they made it, and that they were all still alive.

So many parents freaking out that their children were stuck at school and they were worried about them. Me, I was freaking out when I heard they were letting the Intermediate school out before this robber was located.

I was shouting at my computer,

"DON'T BRING MY KID HOME! 

WE DON'T KNOW WHERE THIS GUY IS YET! 

HE COULD BE ANYWHERE, 

AND MIGHT NEED MORE HOSTAGES, 

AT LET'S SAY, 

THE BUS STOP!"  

Luckily, the cops found him, and something about a shootout, and the guy got killed.

Then, all the buses had to jump into action and get all those kids home. Most of them were 2
 hours late getting home.

I found out later, the man is probably a local person that grew up here. He is the brother of someone who is friends with most of my facebook friends. They won't be telling us  who it was till at least the end of the day.

Kams turned the big OH-FIVE!

Her day started out with breakfast at Denny's with Mom.

She LOVES panakes, and you've never seen a 5 yr old eat pancakes so fast!

Her pick for a birthday cake. . . . .

 Gumball machine cake!

She got a card in the mail from her friend Allisyn!

She was so excited!

She got plenty of new clothes and Preschool supplies!

Later, she got a knock at the door and a mystery gift.

It was a rainy day Barbie!

She had a great day!

Bad luck for me on eeeebay...

Found a ds bag that would hold ALL of Kash's games.
It is RED. His favorite color.
It comes with headphones.
It was only $15 including shipping.
It was "Buy it now."

He waited patiently, patiently, patiently! He waited for a week longer than it said it would take.

The postal service LOST HIS PACKAGE!

I testify to you that Murphy's Law is REAL: Find something you really like for a good deal, it WILL get lost on the way to you.

The seller refunded our money after he could not locate it.
These ds bags are hard to find, and Kash was so happy to have found it.  Bummer

Next:
I tried to buy a tilt/swivel tv mount from someone on a yard sale sight.
She lives in Hurricane.
Do you come to town?
Yes
When will you come next?
I will come on Monday.
What time will you be here on Monday.
Around noon.
Where will you be?
At the DI.
I got tired of getting such shallow, go nowhere answers that I told her never mind.

I had already found one on eebay that was 8 dollars less than the yard sale one. It would be delivered to my house, and I didn't have to keep asking question after question.
I ordered it. Done!

It came in the mail, and Hubby put it together.
EXCEPT it was missing the MAIN PIECE!
The piece that connects the tv to the wall, the piece that makes the mount swivel and twist was not with the kit. Hubby was ticked. He thought I lost the $50 I paid for it. I knew I hadn't, cause I had dealt with other things on eebay that were described wrong, and in every case, the seller met my demands of a lower price to make me happy.
(Like one time the pants were listed as dark green. I really needed that color of pants. They ended up being gray. They fit well, and I said I'd keep them if he took off $5. Which is what it would have cost him to have me mail them back.)

So, I emailed the seller of the tv mount:

Hi, I got the Tv Wall Mount. However, the box of pieces is missing the MAIN piece. The "mount arm" that hooks the tv brackets to the wall is not with this box. It is not in the picture of parts you have in your picture either. I contacted Sanus to get the missing part, and they don't make "parts" for this item. It is only sold as a set at Costco. He also stated that "if" they made parts, then the mount arm that is missing would cost $100 by itself. So, the kit you sold me is worthless without that mount arm. You stated that it might be missing a drywall anchor or something, and that the mounting pieces are in excellent condition. Without the mount arm, it is NOT in excellent condition. Will you look around and see if you can find that missing piece to send to me? Otherwise, I will need a complete refund, and I can just throw this away for you, or you can pay to ship it back so you can throw it away.
Thank you, DS


She emailed me back:

Hi, thanks for the message. I don't have any other pieces to this. I have a no returns policy and I did take proper pictures of the item. I also mention in the listing that I 1. didn't have the instructions and 2. thought it was AT LEAST missing a drywall anchor.
The pieces I had were in excellent unused condition, as stated. I think we're not agreeing here, I sent exactly what I advertised in the listing.


I was ticked that she was so stupid.  I mean, who is dumb enough to think that just because you claimed "no returns" that it means if you sell me a pile of metal and screws and claim it is a kit, that I can't return it?


I wrote back:

"The picture does not show that it is missing the mounting arm. From what I can see, the mounting arm should be attached to the bulky mounting piece (in the picture) and folded under like it is designed to do while attached to a tv. I had to go only on the claim that it was "new in package" and "mounting pieces in excellent condition." Nothing in this "package" is worth anything without the mounting arm. The description states that most of the hardware was sealed, but some had been opened (not maybe missing,) and only says that there might be a drywall anchor missing or something small like that. My husband says that he couldn't even tell there is a piece missing from the picture, and he is the one that tried to put it together. I did read the whole listing, and I did view all the pictures. That's why I felt confident in buying this item, cause it was described as "in excellent condition". If the main piece is missing, then in no way can it be described as "excellent condition.""



She wrote back:

"I don't agree with the return request because the item was shipped exactly as I described it. I provided clear, detailed pictures of the item. There were no pictures of the mounting arm. In the description, I disclosed that item was missing the directions, and I could tell it was missing at least some hardware. The pieces I had were new and unused, many still wrapped in plastic. I believe the buyer failed to view all the pictures and read the listing, which also stated no returns on this item."

  
UGH. I had to take it to the eebay peeps:
I basically repeated everything I wrote to the seller.

EEbay then reviewed the case and then they sent me a packing label to put on the package to mail it back to the seller! 

They charge the seller for the shipping to send it back to them if the seller describes it wrong. How awesome is that? I was worried for days, cause I wasn't sure if I'd have to pay to send this worthless kit back to her. It was a heavy 5 lbs.

So, in the end, I had bad luck with what should have been an easy purchase or an easy return. but, I was happy that what I said would happen happened.
She had to pay to have it shipped back to herself so she can throw it away. :)

Most sellers want you happy and will accommodate your reasonable negotiations.
They want a positive feedback score.
Therein lies the best part of this transaction.
I still get to leave feedback about this sale.
Bye bye 100% positive for this seller.
Others need to know what they will face if they buy a mislabeled item from this person.
Just doing my civic duty.

Thanks for letting me vent. : )

The science behind cookie ingredients! I knew it!!! finally, someone wrote it down.

http://time.com/3179770/the-science-behind-baking-the-most-delicious-cookie-ever/

People don't leave babies in "hot" cars.

Every news agency always states that a baby or child was "left in a hot car."
That statement boils my blood. First off, the cars are NOT HOT when a baby is left in it.
The cars are always comfortable when the baby gets left in it!
THEN, the temps soar and turns the car hot!  DUH!

Now that that is off my chest:

I read this entire article. It was pretty lengthy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html

I didn't even need to read the article, I already knew of everything it stated.

Some people even go as far as to offer advice to people to help them not forget a baby in the backseat!
Dumbest thing I have ever heard of.

First of all, I have recently read over 400 hate-filled comments regarding this topic.

People are basically perfect.

If you are perfect, then what good will it do you to leave your "cell phone in the back seat"
or "leave a shoe on the floor" in the back seat, or "leave your purse next to the baby"!!!

PERFECT PEOPLE DON'T NEED A REMINDER, AND THEY WON'T DO IT.

They won't leave a shoe or their phone in the back seat,
because they don't plan on leaving a baby in the car.

I am NOT talking about the people who leave their kids in the car while they "run inside to pay a bill" or while they "run inside to get a prescription". That is a completely separate topic all in itself, and even though I don't condone doing that at all, I am not addressing that subject at this time.

(It finally, in this moment, just made sense to me why there is a SIGN in a close-to-the-door parking spot at my local Wal-mart that states that the spot is "RESERVED FOR PARENTS OF SICK CHILDREN", is it perhaps so the parents can "run inside the store to get medicine or prescriptions" while they leave the sick kids in the car? just a thought.)

A girl won a science fair cause she invented a device to stick under the baby
that will alert your phone in case you left the baby in the car.
I would never buy it. NO ONE would ever buy it.
Who in their right mind thinks it could happen to them and PREPARE FOR THE DAY?
No one will buy it, cause the thought of needing it is ridiculous.
PEOPLE ARE PERFECT!



It's all about the ROUTINE, people!

My boys used to do gymnastics EVERYDAY for 3 hours a day.
If school got out early, or there was no school at all,
I would forget to take them to the gym 80% of the time.

If we were out of town on Sunday, then I would forget about piano lessons on
Monday morning. Everytime.

If I was supposed to pick up a kid at school on Tuesdays, and there was no school on Monday,
I would forget to pick him up EVERY time.

I totally understand mad people that say that forgetting a child is unacceptable.
I get that. I do.

But, it's NOT about FORGETTING a child.

It's about the ROUTINE. (which has to do with the BRAIN)

In the article, these people that lost their most prized possessions were
crucified by their peers for doing the unthinkable.

Guess what? They all had breaks in their routine:
phone distractions, extended family concerns, work related problems,
doctor appointments, a song on the radio, something else, or anything else.

Many people in the article REMEMBER taking the baby in the house and
putting it to bed before moving on to the next task just to find out later,
to their horrer, that they hadn't actually taken the baby inside.

Brains are mysteriously confusing.

I will never understand mine.

I can remember almost every rule in the softball rulebook,
but I can't remember where I put the keys to the car just now.

I can always remember the sugar content to a cup of yogurt or a can of soda,
but I can't remember if I just took 500mg of Acetaminophen or 1000mg.
(the kind of stuff you NEED to know)

I spent 2 years trying to get pregnant with my 7th child.
Even though I would nurse her all night long, it seemed,
every morning for the first 9 months of her life I would wake up surprised
to see that I had a new baby!

Hardly anyone "leaves a baby in the car." Hardly anyone "forgets a baby in the car."
I am here to tell you that if the baby is being left in the car at all,
it is because the person believes the child is SOMEWHERE ELSE:
at the sitter's, or in it's bed, or with it's other parent, or whatever
other thing that is normal in that person's life.

The venom that spews out of some people is uglier than the accidental death that has occurred.
Forgetting that the baby is in the car does not happen a ton and is not a crime
and should not be punished by the courts.
The "venom spewing" SHOULD be a crime, and SHOULD BE PUNISHED!

So many people have had their fair share of  "brain farts".
Leaving the house to go shopping, but forgetting the money or the coupons.
Going hiking and forgetting the water.
Going hunting or bird watching and forgetting the binoculars.
Going to another room in the house and forgetting what you went in there for.
Whatever it is.
WE ALL DO IT!

Sadly, some people get caught having a life altering "distraction".
Then they have to spend the rest of their lives torturing themselves
and searching their "imperfect, human brain" for answers that ARE NOT THERE.

Venom spewers beware! If you have not recently "knocked on wood"
while you have spewed your judgmental venom, you WILL be next.
In some way or another.