Preparing every needful thing

YES, if you have kids you know Halloween is a NEEDFUL thing! Last night for FHE, we carved pumkins - well, okay - not WE, but the kids **had** to do their own - the big ones didn't want the little ones "messing" theirs up...so they each got little carving knives & came up with their own ideas & cut them up! (dad helped with the ghost - but not much!)


Rossi & Kiersten did the "Jack Skellington" and Howie/Kali did a ghost. Brynn helped GUT the beasts...and I am seasoning/cooking the pumkin seeds!

We also did the obligatory ward party trunk or treating - Howie & Rossi were too excited to get there - so they went ahead of the girls - so all I have are pictures of "Pink-a-bow" (tinkerbell--and yes, she did change her shoes into the green play high heel shoes & wore them ALL night!) Then we have the Corpse Bride (acting out the part of a dead person) and the most "rebellous" I've ever seen Kiersten (she even put on fake eyelashes) as the she-devil...(Howie was a pirate - just can't get him out of that mode - and Ross was a skellton again this year - in fact, I'll pull up last year's picture of him, not much different from this year!!)

Sticking with my healthy kick...

Bill Maher understands completely where this health care crisis is bringing America - and WHY!

I love his perspective & opinions!!! (Oh, and the last 40 seconds IS THE BEST!)

Be healthy

A recent conversation with some friends about deoderant/anti-perspirant has left me confused. Apparently the alluminum ingredient in anti-perspirant will make you sick - or give you cancer and eventually kill you off. (sidenote - don't you think it would be less expensive to take tin foil & wad it up and shove it in your pits than actually buy anti-perspirant?)

I am an anti-perspirant wearer. I do not enjoy the feeling of drippy wet pitted-shirts, which is what happens when you live in such a warm climate as do I.

Then I got to thinking...oreo's are not good for you either. But I'm thinking of doing a science project and eat as many oreo's as times I apply anti-perspirant and see what kills me first...the aluminum in my pits, or the crisco in my veins.

I'll keep you updated.

Watching the grass grow

Okay - so it's the time of year to plant our winter rye grass! I prefer sod. But Ross got a hold of this rototiller and wanted to play with it - and well, seed is about 90% cheaper than sod...and about 99.9% less man power to lay!

Oh, I should mention that they went to home depot every weekend for 3 weeks to get their ripped bag pallets, you know where you pay $5 for an entire pallet of all their ripped bags - manure, peet moss, potting soil, miracle grow anything!! So we had plenty of "top soil" after it was tilled! So here are the boys tilling the ground by the sweat of their brows!





this is our 1 week mark -- whole yard and what a patch looks like



Here is the 2 week mark -- again - whole yard and the same patch of grass as last week



You can also see our little "patch" of pygmie date palms!



They grow slow, but make a cute little oasis in the back area! After the grass is in, we'll plant some annuals around the base of it, for a splash of color! And eventually we'll have decking around it - leading up to the pool - if the funding actually ever makes it here!

The problem with our yard currently is that we seem to have a dry spot in that back corner! I'm sure you can see it - so I'm going out extra each day w/ the hose - we have to change nozzels on the sprinkler heads so the back one lets out a little more...just haven't gotten around to it - especially since we are watering the back 4 times a day - it's a little moist to be walking out there!

OH - and poor doggie! She hasn't been able to go back there to use the toilet - she's had to use the neighbor's grass patch! LOL!

Hopefully at the end of three weeks (next Monday) we'll be able to call it established & mow it! Can't wait for the rest of these patches to grow in!!

(edited to add pictures from week 3!!)

I have got *THE CLEANEST*

Hermit crabs in the world as of this minute! Yep, I ran them through the washing machine.

I didn't mean to, I suspect they crawled from their perfectly humidified habitat onto something of Howie's which I snatched up and threw in the washing machine - because - WELL, COME ON, HE'S A BOY, if he looks at clean clothes, they turn dirty!

So as I moved the clothes from the washer to the dryer, I noticed a few claws - and as I took them out of the dryer, I noticed some PINK claws - and shells, even.

I did look for the crabs yesterday and figured they dug a hole to molt or something.

They've been given a proper burial in the lint garbage. May they rest in pieces.

(Uh, no, I didn't take pictures - what kind of sicko do you think I am, anyway?)

Fireman Howie!

We went to the city fire station today - they had an open house - which means I didn't have to cook lunch! The kids had a complete blast! They called Brynn up to do a dance to a song cause they thought she was so cute, and I couldn't get a picture, cause I was up there shaking it with her! LOL! They gave her a yellow fluffy stuffed bear - and she won't let it go anywhere! Hugs it, squeeze it and made everyone around her kiss it! LOL! It was So cute!

They had a fun little "mobile" type home (on wheels) that they piped some kind of mineral smoke into it (that's safe to inhale) - to show kids what a smoke-filled house would look like - and how there's less smoke on the bottom if you get low and crawl - all the kids enjoyed that little "escape house" too!

They had a HUGE truck full of liquid refreshment - Howie helped himself - he knew I wouldn't let him have Dr. Pepper because - well, it's just poison - but there was a new type of drink there, looked like it was in a sprite can - came out drinking it -- showed it to me and said it was the BEST drink he'd ever had! Thank you Brisk Ice Tea in a can! I let him have Dr. P...I mean - you know - the better of two poisons? LOL!

Then as we were about to leave, Howie came upon some clothes & wanted to try them on!!!

Getting ready to spook people....

Well, I got a wild hair up my elbow - and decided I wanted to make some sasparilla!

Okay - not really - someone sent us two HUGE boxes of Omaha Steaks via UPS and they came packed in a TON of dry ice - which - of course, you HAVE to use - cause otherwise it'd be a mess....and we all know how fun it would be to melt the dry ice and swim in it without getting wet, but we opted for root-beer instead.

Of course, my bowl wasn't big enough - so it ended up being root beer slush - which is also pretty tasty - but here are the spooky pictures! Too bad we didn't get the steak a little closer to halloween so we could give the tricker/treaters a real treat!

Camera Comparison...

Okay - I took two cameras - and I'm doing side-by-side comparisons, both cameras were used on overcast days, with the same child doing the same thing - to see which one I like better. Please tell me which one you thought did a better job. Camera 1 or camera 2 (one of them is about 3 times the price of the other, but HEY, if it takes good pictures, won't it pay itself off in the end?)

Camera 1: Took Brynn to the park & did some "burst" pictures of her coming down a slide. You can click on them to see the quality of the larger picture.





Camera 2: Again - more "burst" pictures, this camera has a faster burst rate (instead of 3 pictures coming down the slide, I had 7, but for comparison, I am only posting 3), but looks like it sacrafices pixels for speed. Click to see the quality of the larger picture.






Camera 1: Still shot, set in portrait mode



Camera 2: Still shot, set in portrait mode



Camera 1: Action shot, again, set in portrait mode



Camera 2: Action shot, set in portrait mode.