New Jeep Paint...

Sorry to be rude and not post the pics of the painted Jeep but it was a busy week with Thanksgiving and my first Black Friday experience! So here we go!

First off-the Jeep taped off:

And ta-da!

We've since cleaned the plastic panels so everything looks better. These pics still had the dust on the panels.

It is super shiney!! I could go out and do my make-up in the reflection. It looks soooo much nicer!

There is one little problem: The garage was a couple of degrees too cold and paint doesn't stick to cold metal. We had heaters in the garage but heat rises. Result? The paint ran in a couple of spots on the bottom of the Jeep (where it was the coldest). Solution? Problem areas can be lightly sanded and repainted most likely in the Spring when it warms up. Overall, the Jeep looks a million times better. The roof and the hood look superb simply because it was warmer up top.

So there it is. Conclusion? I don't think I'd ever do that again. It was an insane amount of work!! In the end, we got some super wonderful paint with a ton of shimmery metal flake in it so the quality of the paint itself is 100 times better than a paint job at Maaco. So in the end, I think we ended up with a way better paint job but man, that's a lot of WoRk!

It seemed like a good idea...

Our Jeep is old and the paint has been peeling on the hood and roof since we bought it. We looked into getting it repainted and it was $500. Hmmmm....we only paid $400 for the whole Jeep so the paint quote seemed a little steep. Merril has a friend who used to do body work and paint so with his expertise, we decided to paint the Jeep ourselves and save $325. Seems like a brilliant idea eh??

It was a great idea until I realized that sanding a vehicle take a lot of time and energy! We started sanding yesterday at 9 a.m., thinking it would take a couple of hours. We were wrong. Merril left for work at noon and I kept sanding until 2 p.m. when I ran out of sanding pads.

Merril brought home more sanding pads yesterday night and I made a goal to finish today. Merril's doing a Japanese tour so it's all me. I started at 9 again and just finished again at 2 p.m. I think it's mostly done, except for a few places that need to be sanded by hand.

I have 2 fears about this project.

#1-Merril's friend comes to paint on Tuesday and say we didn't sand it right.

#2-We paint it and it still looks crappy.

Yikes! Fingers crossed, I'll be posting pics of our beautiful paint job on Tuesday!!

Poor Jacky...

We went to the dentist last week and Jack had a bunch of cavities. The Doc recommended sedating him for the cavities because Jack FREAKED over getting his teeth cleaned. So he went this morning for his sedation. He was given some stuff to calm nausea and help him relax. He relaxed so much that he peed on the floor. The nurse said it's common and they even had dry clothes for him to change into. (Super awesome Children's Dental!!) Merril said that Jack was laughing hysterically when he was changing him, like he was being tickled. Then he got his teeth fixed. The Doc said he did great. I was there to hold him as he came out of anesthesia. He cracked his eyelids and said, "Mom, you have 4 eyes.....and 2 noses." After a 1/2 hour, we were able to leave and bring him home. He gets a day in front of the TV. Juliet decided she gets equal privileges so both beds came out to the living room.

The double vision is gone now but earlier he was saying things like, "Mom, the second Mom behind you does the exact same things you do." and "When you walked around the Jeep, there were 3 of you."

It's almost lunch time and he seems normal again. He was starving and has eaten a bowl of soup, a peanut butter sandwich and a string cheese. He's supposed to have Jell-O all day. I guess he eats like his father. :)

This just made me thankful that my kids don't have major health problems that require them to be in and out of the hospital!!

Maxine's Baptism...

We've been crazy busy around here! But before I forget, Maxine decided to be baptized!! We made a push to finish the Book of Mormon before she was baptized and finished the evening before! To learn more about our church click here. She was baptized on a Saturday morning by her father, Merril, and then we had muffins and juice at our house afterwards. Here we are at the church before the baptism.

This is the gorgeous dress that Maxine's Grandma C. made for her. She loves it and wants to wear it all the time.

Maxine's Aunt Rachel gave her a set of pearls too. She feels very grown up when she wears them. After I was helping Maxine change out of her wet clothes, I asked her how she felt. She said, "I'm cold on the outside but warm on the inside." We're very proud of her.

Triple Combination Challenge Update...

Well I've been busy and have gotten behind but I just finished the Doctrine & Covenants. I'm downloading the mp3 of the Pearl of Great Price. I still need to book it through the Book of Mormon by December 19th. It's going to be close!

My Sunday Morning...

I got up this morning to the sound of children saying, "I'm going to eat the Kit Kat." and "Help me get this wrapper open." So instantly I'm up and putting an end to the sugar fest and start to make breakfast. I decide to make muffins and turn on the oven. Five minutes later, Maxine comes in and says, "What smells weird?" I look at the oven and say, "Sometimes food spills in the oven and then burns on the bottom."

So I open the oven and see gobs of pink plastic oozing. I had totally forgotten that in a rush to clean my house on Friday, I had stuck a cookie sheet and a huge pink plastic bowl in the oven to "hide" it until I could wash it at a more convenient time. Now the pink plastic bowl was melting all over the racks and bottom of the oven. *sigh* Now it's time to clean the oven.

Classic: Mom has her head in the oven.

The bottom totally melted out.

Strings of pink ooze pulled off the rack.

Apple cinnamon muffins in the oven, finally.

Such a bonehead. :)

Thriller...

For me, it's not Halloween until I've watched the original Michael Jackson Thriller music video.

Happy Halloween!

Little girls...

So Maxine came home yesterday and said, "I corrected the teacher today!" Intrigued I said, "Oh yeah. What happened?"

Maxine: "So the teacher spelled nineth on the board and I told him he spelled it wrong. I said it should be spelled ninth. He didn't believe me so we went to his computer and he spelled nineth and the little squiggles appeared under the word. He spelled ninth my way and the squiggles went away!"

Me: "Wow babe! Good job!"

Yep, just a tad precocious.

Snickers, Kit Kats, and Almond Joys...

I don't normally buy candy because I just end up eating it. That being said, I love Halloween because it gives me a good excuse to buy candy. Yeah! But I always buy it too early and end up eating way too much. I did the same thing this year. So here's the plan for this year:

That's the gun safe. Now my Kit Kats and Almond Joys are nestled between shotguns and .22 rounds.

It's working out tremendously! If I have to go downstairs, open the safe, get the candy, close the safe, and go back upstairs, it's just way too much work. :)

To the zoo...

My immediate area doesn't have a zoo. We were out of town for a wedding and decided to hit Hogle Zoo. We had a great time and it was so easy. We walked around with no strollers or diaper bags. I felt very unencumbered! We rode the train, which was silly and overpriced in my opinion, but what the hey.

Jack turned into a turtle, so we decided to leave him there.

The giraffes were my favorite.

We rode the carousel.

It was a cool morning but didn't rain. I had to buy a hot chocolate because I'm not used to such cold weather. We watched the elephant show and had a great day!

Camping and rainy days...

Over the weekend, we went camping with the Hummels. It was kind of by Oak Grove but it was more like, "bear left on that dirt road for 7 miles." The weather was wonderful and the next day we went for a hike. I totally meant to take my camera but set it down before we left. So I snagged this with my camera phone. Juliet and I were in the back because the hiking was down a slot canyon and we were the slowest. There was a lot of hoisting her up and down. But I stopped to take a picture of her because she sat in the this crack, posed, and told me to take her picture.

And General Conference Sunday was a wonderful relaxing day! We had a huge breakfast and hung around in our pajamas. :)

And today it's rainy!

I love it when it rains because it rains so seldom! I want to stay inside and read a book and bake bread all day!

Trampoline hair...

Did you ever jump so much that your hair would go crazy with static electricity?

My kids have been on the trampoline all morning since it's so mild. It's going to be a nice day.

A little challenged...

So last night was Young Women's and one of the girls, for a Personal Progress project, challenged the other girls and leaders to read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine & Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price in 90 days. Yikes.

I'm not a fast reader. The thought is daunting to say the least. Especially since it's taken my family 2 years to get mostly through the Book of Mormon (we're in Ether.) So to get through a triple combination front to back by December 12th, I knew I was going to need some help. Fortunately for me, LDS.org offers free mp3 audio files of the scriptures and other reading materials like the Ensign and conference talks. I downloaded the Doctrine & Covenants because I wanted to finish the Book of Mormon with my family and then start over.

So I listened to the introduction while I did the evening dishes. I cried twice while standing over dried alfredo sauce. I thought to myself, "This is going to be awesome!" I'm all the way up to Section 6! I'm so excited!

So now I challenge you! Read the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants and Pearl of Great Price, even the front introductions, by December 12th. Boo-rah!

Family Pictures...

This year for our family picture, I wanted to take it out at the sand dunes in front of the Scout. (Don't worry Grandmas, I have cute ones for you without the Scout.) We took some good ones but since I don't want to spoil the Christmas card picture, you get this:

Non-Labor Day...

We went to the park on Labor Day and I noticed several large groups of people making lunch on a barbeque. I realized I wanted to be at a barbeque. Merril was out of town for Labor Day so I decided to load up the kids and head some place cool. We called the Hummels to see if they wanted to come and they did! We headed up into the mountains and started some charcoal and a fire for s'mores. The kids immediately started up some game where they had to camp overnight without any gear and Maxine was going to make them all sweaters out of pine needles. (Sounds itchy.)

Then the Hummels arrived and one of Jared's taillights had broken off and was hanging by the wires and scratching up the truck. So he pulled out a pocketknife to pry it loose and stuck it through his middle finger instead. Amy pulled out the first aid kit and wrapped up his finger but in the end they decided it was best to go to the hospital.

He received a tetanus shot and 10 stitches.

After the Hummels left to take Jared to the E.R., we made dinner and ate s'mores.

Juliet had the camera and snuck a picture of me eating a s'more without my knowledge. (I kind of don't like those pictures because I look and myself and start to think, "Do I stand like that all the time? Why is my arm like that? Does my face really look like that when I'm eating?" I guess I just prefer to pose for pictures.)

The kids got dirty and sticky and we had a fabulous time. I sat back and listened to the breeze blow through the pine trees.

Freshly painted toes...

After lunch, I decided to paint the trim on my back door. I've been caulking for the past week and now it was time for paint. I was taping off the door and around the trim. The wind was blowing slightly, frustrating me to no end. After painting a section, messing up, ripping the tape off I decided to leave it for another day. I put the kids down for naps with a disappointed feeling inside. I read my book for a minute but still felt crestfallen. Then I looked down at my feet. They were a bit dirty and in serious need for a pedicure. I frowned at them. So I closed my book and proceeded to paint my toes.

Every single time I paint my toes, I'm amazed at how good it makes me feel. A fresh coat of shimmery, iridescent pink with no chips, or scuffs brings my self esteem up! Ahhh. So now I'm feeling better and will figure out the door some other day.

And lastly, here's a gem I found on the camera.

Yikes!

I'll fix you...

Okay, so my Jeep is old. When we got it, I looked down at the console and there's a display that alerts the driver when something is amiss with the Jeep.

I thought to myself, "That's cool!!" Merril noticed it and said, "Ross's Mom's Jeep had one of those. It was always flashing something about the back lights."

Mostly, it doesn't do anything but show me the time and date. It's told me that I'm low on oil and washer fluid and have a door ajar.

Three weeks ago, the dreaded error message popped up, "Rear Lamp Failure." It seemed pretty stern for a light bulb being burned out. So I checked and noticed a brake light out. Fixed the light and turned on the Jeep, same error. I ignored it for a while to see if it would correct itself. No dice. I checked the web and that led me in the direction of license plate lights. Sure enough, one was out. I replaced it, jumped in the Jeep, cranked it over and REAR LAMP FAILURE. Urg. I went back to my first plan of ignoring it to see if it would go away. I then I thought about back up lights. Therein lies my problem. Something's wonky with the back up lights. They come on half the time. Do I really care? No. Do I want the error light to go away, YES! It blinks the entire time the jeep is on. This thing has become my nemesis.

Fast forward to today. Eyes narrowed and hands on hips, I attacked again. I read more about this common Jeep problem and one suggestion was to replace the neutral safety switch, which could be pricey and out of my skill set, or bypass the lamp outage module, cheap! So I pulled it out, yanked the appropriate resistor off the module board and reinstalled it. Ta da!!

Now if only I could make the Jeep have a smiley face on it.

Wishing school didn't start tomorrow...

I know I'm probably the only one, but I'm sad school starts tomorrow. Maxine wasn't excited last week but she was excited tonight. It'll fizzle soon, I promise. Summer is time for sleeping in, no schedules, no homework, no bedtimes, and general laziness. And well, I'm lazy. Last week, Maxine was lamenting that I don't home school her. I asked, "Why do you want to be home schooled?" She said, "So I can sleep in, stay in my pajamas all day and not leave the house." With a raised eyebrow I retorted, "That's no reason to stay home babe." Maybe if she was bullied, maybe if she was having a serious social dilemma, but to stay in her pajamas all day? Maybe we're more alike than I'd previously thought.

Australi-yah!

We had a super fun time! We mostly were winging the whole trip but here are a few highlights!

We were flying standby so we drove to LAX to catch our flight. We could've flown from Vegas but we were a little nervous about not getting on in Vegas and thus, missing the flight to Sydney.

We didn't know we needed visas to visit Australia so we didn't get on the flight the first night we tried. Since we drove, we just picked up our truck and stayed in a dive motel. The next day, we purchased our visas online and went to the Santa Monica Pier. The weather was cool, about 75 so it was a nice break from 110.

Then we went to the Griffith Observatory up by the Hollywood sign.

The observatory has been in movies like Transformers, Charlie's Angels 2, Yes Man, The Rocketeer, etc. The inside is a museum about planets and space! Very cool and very free! I would recommend it to anyone with kids!

So that night we got on the flight to Sydney. Merril and I were still standby but were able to get seats next to each other. There were personal tv screens for each passenger and there was a ton of movies, tv episodes, music videos and games that you could pick from. Merril and I watched about 4 movies each. If I decided I didn't like the movie, I could stop it and pick a different one. Super great!

We got into Sydney early in the morning, picked up a rental car, and went to see the famous Opera House.

This is Sydney's Harbour Bridge. (I didn't spell harbor wrong, that's how the Aussies spell it.) Tourists can climb to the top of it. We would've but didn't have time. We drove to Brisbane.

This is me driving on the right side of the car, on the left hand side of the road. I had the hardest time making right-hand turns.

We met up with our friends, Nate and Sarah, and fell asleep.

I made Nate find me some kangaroos. These were out at Turnboll or Turnbull or some little coastal town like that.

The next day we went out to Bribie Island for fish and chips and to see the most beautiful beach ever! Miles of white, clean, soft sand. It was most excellent.

Another night we took the ferry to around the Brisbane river and saw the Brisbane Temple. (My picture didn't turn out, we were going fast and it was dark.)

Mostly we just goofed off and hung out with friends. We had dinner at friend's houses, saw all their American muscle cars they were rebuilding and had a great time together without the kids.

On the way home, I got bumped to business class and Merril didn't. He told me to take the seat so I did. I felt out of place the whole time. I really tried to mind my manners for 14 hours. I belong in coach with my peeps. But the food was great, I ate on real plates with real silverware, and the bathroom is huge in business class. Some of the passengers were pretty snooty. Here's the menu.

I also got socks, lotion, a chapstick, a pen, an eye cover for sleeping, mints, a real pillow and a nice comforter to sleep with. The seat laid totally flat. I don't think it's worth it.

Just a few things I want to remember about Australia:

-Burger King is called Hungry Jacks

-A burger Aussie style comes with a fried egg and beets on it

-Ketchup is called tomato sauce

-Breakfast is called Brekky

-Eggs have smiley faces

-Tim Tams are a type of cookie and so delicious!! (You can buy them in the states, Pepperidge Farm makes them. I bought a package at Wal-Mart yesterday.)

-The toilet is called a dunney

-Sticky date pudding should always be ordered for dessert

-Woolworth's is huge over there but they left the states long ago

-Everything is so expensive! A candy bar is $3! So is a can of soda!

-Meat pies are very popular

-Australia is very clean, looks like Hawaii and sounds like Britain

-It was awesome!