Trimming the tree...

Well, we decorated the Christmas trees without a single ornament being broken. However, some candy canes found their way into little mouths. Do candy canes go bad?? I've used the same ones on my tree for several years.

First, the living room tree!! The ornaments that are breakable have been moved a bit higher, due to the fact that Juliet is very curious. I took this from the side because I could lean on the table for a steady hand. It looks better from the front. Anyhoo, you get the idea.

Maxine and Jack's tree is pieced together branches leftover from the stump. I used about 10 zip ties and voila!! Maxine was skeptical that it could look good until I broke out the icicles. Half a box later, she kept gooing at how beautiful her tree was!!

Hee hee. I think it kind of looks like a star fish. We went to family dollar and got some cheap, plastic balls and star ornaments to hang (not pictured.) I think it works well. They seem to think it's fun too!!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Wahoo, the day after Thanksgiving means driving out to the forest to cut a Christmas tree. Our tree came pre-flocked this year! Unfortunately, all the flocking melted away by the time we drove home.

Here's Merril, ready to attack the tree. He made that saw in middle school shop. Used it ever since.

Maxine was eating snow, of course. No matter how many times I tell my kids not to eat the snow, they never listen.

Juliet got to ride around on my back. She looks like she's having fun. I needed some exercise from all the pie eating so we were both happy.

We brought a ton of snow gear and the kids had a blast playing and rolling in the snow.

Max was helping Jack out of the forest.

Here's Merril dragging our tree to the truck.

And of course, a little hot chocolate brings a lot of happiness at the end of the day.

And on a side note, we got another goldfish. There's only one but the reflection off the tank makes it look like there's two fish in there..)

There were some branches leftover so I 'made'a tree for the kids' room. It's kind of goofy looking but I'll post pictures later. Merry Christmas!

Twilight!!

Heh, heh. Just kidding. I didn't even read the books, let alone stand in line for a midnight showing of the movie. I do intend to see the movie at some point, but don't intend to read the books. It's hard to find a good movie adaptation from a book. Either they change the story so much that the book and movie barely resemble each other or they cut so much that I'm left unsatisfied. So either I read the book or see the movie.

I've heard mixed reviews about Twilight though. Some hated it, some loved it and that made me curious. If you've seen Twilight already, what did you think??

BTW, I saw the new James Bond and really liked it. But I'm a sucker for blue eyes and accents. And guns...and fast cars...nice.And I think Judy Dench does a really great M. So the other question I pose is this: Who is your favorite James Bond?? We have Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig. (There was one film with George Lazenby as James Bond but since I'd never heard of him before, I figured you hadn't either.) I've always been a Sean Connery sucker but Daniel Craig is really climbing the charts for me as the best Bond.

Plunge into the cornucopia...

This year it became apparent to me that I lack Thanksgiving decorations. So during the season, I thought about expanding my decor. At school, Maxine's been learning about Thanksgiving and cornucopias. (I had to run spellchecker on that one.) So we decided that a cornucopia would be a great addition. So I looked around and waited for things to go on sale. FYI, all Halloween and harvest decorations are 80% at Roberts Crafts. We got fake pumpkins and gourds for 50 cents each. The apples and oranges didn't fall into the harvest category so they were regular price. I got the cornucopia at Wal-Mart for half off.

Now I don't really consider myself a 'crafty' person but I dusted off my baby glue gun and set to work. I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out!

All told, it came in under $10. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Love hurts...

*I'm giving you fair warning, this story gets icky* As we were nearing bedtime, Jack came in, nervously, and said, "I didn't mean to squeeze the fishy, it was an accident." Curious what such a statement could mean, I hurriedly walked into Max and Jack's room and looked in the fish tank. The step stool was pulled next to the fish tank, the lid was off, and the goldfish was floating. "Uh oh", I thought to myself. Do you remember that part in "A Knight's Tale" when the one guy is threatening the herald and says, "I'll fong you until your insides are out! Your entrails will become your extrails." Yep, that's what happened to our fishy. He'd been loved a little too much. We later found out that Jack wanted to get the fish out so he could hold it and play with it. Seriously, I'm amazed he caught and held onto that thing with his bare hands. I guess I don't have to worry about him starving in the wilderness. He's catching fish with his bare hands at the early age of 3!!

So another one bites the dust. And I was just thinking that this fish had been alive for a long time! We weren't mad, just felt sorry for this poor, poor fish. I could tell Jack knew he'd done something wrong and felt bad. Maxine was a little upset that the fish was dead but seemed fine once I said we'd just get a new one. (This is why I only get 12 cent fish! Could you imagine if it was a puppy?? Too sad to even think about!)

So you've been forwarned! Keep this crook away from your small pets...

;)

Pears...

I finally bottled some pears! They're Merril's very favorite type of bottled fruit. Don't get me wrong, I like pears better than peaches as well but pears take more effort. The skin of a peach will slip off when dunked in boiling water but pears have to be pealed by hand. But, I didn't bottle any pears last year (Juliet was needy and I was tired) so I made myself do it this year. It's a little late to be bottling pears but I squeaked in a batch. Ooooooo, and they're YUMMY! We made out with 7 pints. Well...we're down to 6. We had some with dinner last night. Merril always finishes the meal by drinking all the pear syrup. It tends me make me cringe just a bit. But how can I argue when he pulls back and says, "It tastes like heaven." I'm sure he's settled from his sugar rush by now.

It got really quiet so I walked out and found Jack, asleep on the hardwood floor.

How can he be sleeping on the hardwood floor?? If I move him now, he'll wake up and be grumpy. Oh well, he looks comfy and peaceful to me. FYI, that's brown marker on his forehead and not some gnarly scab.

Birthday fun and flower child...

We've had a few birthdays lately; Jack turned 3 and Maxine turned 6. Maxine wanted a turkey cake for her 'friend' party. I thought the cupcakes were fun (nothing compared to Amy's beautiful cakes but fun!)

For the family parties, Jack wanted a chocolate cake and Maxine wanted a cheesecake. Jack's my chocolate monster. It was the one thing that would make him scream and cry as a baby. Since he (and I) were deprived for his first year, I think he's made it a personal goal to spend the rest of his life making up for it.

Maxine received some flower barrettes from one of her friends and Jack thought they were funny. Sometimes I feel bad he spends his days with all girls.

We made some carmel popcorn balls too. Juliet liked them the best and carried this one around for a long time. She was a sticky, gooey mess towards the end. She'd drooled on it so much that the popcorn had dissolved and left a mass of carmel. I can't blame her though, I love them too!

Lesson in humility...

Okay, so our dryer died for good this time. The motor totally won't work anymore and died on my last load of laundry for the week. Merril said that our OLD, OLD dryer from when we first moved to St. George was still at the shop and he could see if the motor from it would work. So he brought it home and I remembered how much I disliked it. It's gotta be from the 80s with a white body and a black panel up on top. It's smaller than my other dryer but takes 1 1/2 times as long to dry clothes. So I helped Merril unload it and we start walking into the house and I say, "Where are you going with this??"

He says, "Into the house, I thought."

I said, "I don't want that thing in my house. I thought you were going to flip the motor."

He says, "I don't think it'll work but I'll look at it." He proceeds to take it apart a bit and says, "It looks different, I don't think it'll work with our broken dryer."

So I grumble and say, "Fine, let's move it in."

So we move it in and hook it up. I glare at it, hating that this ugly dryer was back in my presence. I had done a load of laundry that morning and had hung up most of the jeans in my bathroom to dry. I went to the bathroom to retrieve the still mostly-wet jeans and throw them in the dryer. I cranked it up and walked away.

And then I started thinking, 'Those clothes were barely any dryer after hanging for 7 hours. I know this dryer is ugly and takes longer but at least it's drying clothes. I know they'll be dry in an hour and a half. I'm being ungrateful'

So I've made peace with the ugly dryer and felt unappreciative for my many blessings. I vowed to be less worldly. So then the next night, I was teaching in Young Womens and talked about my lesson in humility. After the lesson, the YW president game up and said, "You know, I have a dryer that I'm not using and it works great! It's gas though. You can have it if you want! I just got a new set from my Mom."

So I haven't gone and looked at it yet or anything but hey, free dryer. Isn't that nice??

(I've been listening to Christmas music for 2 weeks.) ;)

Halloween and some other stuff...

I've got a computer up and running again!! Yeehaw! So here's some pictures that've parked it on my camera for a bit. They're all straight out of the camera because all my editing software hasn't been installed yet.

Here's Merril doing his best to fix the dryer. The dryer died for good last night. At least I got a week's worth of laundry through it first! Thanks babe for buying me a week! Jack was helping.

Here's Juliet standing next to the drum.

Jack and Merril went to the sand dunes the other morning. Jack wanted to look like Merril.
Here's our pumpkins! From left to right: Cat, Mater (Movie Cars), and a Haunted House. I really love to carve pumpkins! I have a battery-operated pumpkin saw and it makes things go a lot quicker!

Merril was the devil for Halloween and I was an angel. We were dressed up to go to a party.

Maxine was a mummy, Jack was a firefighter, and Juliet was a giraffe.

Merril was handing our candy by our ghostly trunk!

Then we got bored and made the kids hand out candy.

Here's Juliet with her giraffe hood up and a Dum Dum sucker. She pretty much had a sucker the entire evening.

Woosh and that's it! I have to say, having a broken computer has been a pain but I've gotten a lot more done! I really like to waste time on the internet! So hopefully, I can be a little more productive from now on!

A String of Bad Luck...

I'm not here to complain, I'm just stating the facts so you'll know why I haven't been blogging. First of all, my home computer got some spyware. We took it to a computer place, because we were trying to avoid formatting the hard drive. Meanwhile, I checked important internet-related things (is that an oxymoron?) on our OLD laptop. That went on for about a week. The computer place called and said it couldn't be saved and needed to be formatted. So I told Merril to pick it up because I didn't need to pay someone $35/hr. when I can do it for free. So I formatted the hard drive and tried to re-install Windows and realized that we've lost the product key for our copy of Windows. Bummer. So I figured we'd just take it back to the computer place but wasn't in a huge hurry because we still had the laptop. *cue the music* Dunh, dunh, dunh...so while using the laptop the other day, I set it on the floor. When I came back, the laptop was laying flat and wouldn't boot anymore. My suspicions are that Jack or Juliet stood or jumped on it. (They tend to like to do that.) So now the laptop doesn't work.

During all this, my dryer stopped working. Luckily, Merril was able to tear it apart and get it going again but I get the feeling it's on its way out. Also during all this, our DVD/VHS player stopped working so I'm back to our old VHS player. (Normally I'd just go out and buy a new one but it's right before Christmas and I'm trying to save my pennies.) And then yesterday the Tahoe wouldn't start. When Merril tried to clean the battery terminals, one of them came off. (Now I'm no mechanic, but I take that as a bad sign.) But with a new battery, the Tahoe is running as good as ever. I'm thankful it was an easy fix!

So I'm blogging from the garage today because we moved our super-old computer to the garage to become a huge MP3 player with Internet Expolorer on the side. I'm wearing a jacket because it's kind of chilly and this keyboard is seriously dirty. But like I started saying, I'm not complaining, I'm just stating the facts. Our regular computer should be fixed by the end of the week.

And I'm seriously excited that it's November!! I love October through December! I browsed Christmas decorations at Wal-Mart today and felt instantly happy!! So here's looking forward to November and a Happy Thanksgiving! Because seriously, I still have much for which I'm thankful!!

Bugged...

I have some spyware on my home computer so I'm working from the laptop today! I've been working for a couple of days to get rid of it but to no avail. UURRRRGGGHH! But for now, the laptop is still working. It's older than the hills but dependable. The only problem is that we're missing quite a few keys from the keyboard. I don't have a 1 key, { key, or a ; key. We were missing an O key but we swapped out another key from a lesser important spot on the keyboard. Juliet likes to pick keys off the keyboard. But for now, I'm off to choir practice.

Diaper Land...

It's not as much fun as Disney Land, Lego Land, or Candy Land, believe you me. Maxine's the evil genius behind the whole 'land' concept. Diaper Land was the first in an ever-expanding series of lands. Maxine decided to throw ALL of the diapers out of the box and ran around laughing hysterically, "It's Diaper Land!!" As I stared at the diapers strewn about the room, I was less than amused. But Jacky has picked up her exploratative habits and has conquered exciting new worlds such as Sock Land and Flower Land. Juliet helps by establishing Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner Land. All of which end in a big, fat mess. Merril tried to construct "Going to Bed Early Land" but was met with resistance.

Tuweep...Toroweap...whatever...

The Grand Canyon is one of Merril's favorite places to visit because no matter how vividly you remember it or how many pictures you take, it still doesn't compare to the real thing. We decided to go to the campground out by Tuweep Point. (Some of the signs spelled it Tuweep, others say Toroweap. Pretty much everyone pronounces it too-WEEP.) So anyway, the only way to get there is by 60 miles of dirt road. Unless you go the other way and then it's more like 95 miles of dirt road. It's at least an hour and half of bumping and sliding around and can take up to 3 hours, depending on which way you go. (It can take even longer if you get a flat tire. We brought 2 spare tires just to be sure. Merril's friend, Jared Hummel, once brought 4 spare tires and got 5 flats.)

Tuweep is remote so there are NO fences. It's fun yet very scary at the same time, especially with kids. So we had a little talk about no running around and if you want to get close to the edge, you HAVE to have an adult and be laying on your stomach because there's a sheer 3,000 foot cliff if you slip. It makes me tingle just thinking about it. Here's Maxine with her two cousins.

If you have an aversion to heights, I wouldn't recommend it. But we had a lot of fun!!

We had a great time camping because the weather was perfect! Sunny and mid-80s with just a teensy breeze! It was perfect!

Here's Jack, supremely happy because...well...that's just how he is.

Juliet liked playing with my phone but was a little on the grumpy side...that's just how she is.

And here's the cousins on the top of a sandstone mountain by our camp site. They were all very pleased to have conquered the mountain themselves. (They're all smiling at Grandma Campbell if you were wondering.)

Portraits for Maxine!

I love pictures of my kids! I've always thought that portrait studios are kind of a racket because they know you love your children and think they're the cutest kids in the world, and you're going to pay for it too. So it came time for school portraits and I was surprised that the prices were pretty reasonable and thought, "Oh well, at least it'll be done." So we picked out cute clothes and curled Maxine's hair and crossed our fingers. Maxine's smile looks a little forced but overall I'm pleased!! It's time to get Jack's done again too.

I just paid how much?

Gas prices have been coming down lately and I'm grateful because my Tahoe is a gas guzzler. I've made peace with my Tahoe and try not to think about how much gas is. However, I drove through my little town and noticed that gas is dropping a lot faster than in our nearby city, when usually they run about the same. So while all of my family and friends who live in the city are paying around $3.49 or so, I somehow nabbed gas for $3.19! That's a 30 cent savings per gallon! It almost feels like stealing somehow!!

And on a side note, Merril and I fasted and prayed and decided that Maxine should stay put in Kindergarten because she needs to grow up. And shout out to my sister who has started potty training her son!! (My son will be wearing diapers forever because I'm lazy.) :)

Marathon pictures...

I've been lazy about posting pictures from Merril's marathon, mostly because I didn't get a great one. Most are blurry or with a weird color so I think I'll just order from the race photographers. (They're seriously over priced but Merril will probably only run one of these things and I'd like to have at least one good picture.) So anyway, here's what I snapped from the race.

We picked a midway point to go and cheer. It was totally rainy on race day so the kids weren't real happy about that. Juliet was good for a while but got fussy.
Jack was pretty happy for about a half hour.

Maxine was kind of grumpy from the start and kept wondering where Daddy was. She really didn't want her picture taken! She was upset that her sign, which she'd spent hours making, was getting ruined in the rain. I'm sorry girlie! This melted into downright sobbing towards the end. Grandma did her best to keep the tears at bay.

After an hour of waiting, we were about to give up hope and figured we'd missed them. I was halfway to the car and talking to Merril's Dad when I spotted Merril and his brother, Jared. I had Juliet in my arms and RAN to try and snap a picture. I took one and then ran ahead to try and take another one. This is the best of the two but it's still blurry. (Merril's in the background in red and black, Jared is in the foreground in white and grey.) So I stood in the rain for an hour with my camera on and poised for the perfect shot and all I got was this. Oh well. So we packed it up and headed towards the finish line.

I dried pants and socks with the truck heater on the way into town. I stopped at a gas station for a hot chocolate and hot dogs for the kids. (Spirits were improving by now.) We drove to Merril's grandma's house and played around for about an hour and dried coats in the dryer. Then we headed to the finish line.

Merril's leg had started cramping up towards the end so Jared came in first.

Merril was a couple minutes behind Jared and was able to finish in just under 5 hours.

He's finally done.

It took forever to get through town and Merril said he wanted a burger and fries because he was starving! The burger joint was packed so by the time we pulled into the driveway, Merril had been sitting for about an hour and a half. He opened the door to get out of the truck and I said, "Hey wait! I'll come help you." He was like, "Oh, I think I'm good." Then he tried to swing his legs out and said, "I can't move."

After a shower and a nap, under 2 blankets because he was still cold, he was doing okay! He walked like Frankenstein for about 2 days but seemed pretty much back to normal after that. So there it is. I lament that there aren't clearer pictures but I'll take what I can get! Congratulations babe!

McSkippy...

I'm conflicted. Maxine's been lucky because the first grade teacher at her school invites Kindergarten readers into her class for reading time. Maxine loves to go in with the 1st graders and I was excited she'd have some challenging work. About 3 weeks ago, Maxine's Kindergarten teacher asked if we'd want to jump Maxine into 1st grade. I hesitated. I asked, "What does Maxine think?" She said that Maxine said she wanted to keep things how they were. Okay, subject dropped.

On Saturday, I ran into the 1st grade teacher Maxine reads with and she said, "We should really think about skipping Maxine into 1st grade now or jumping her straight into 2nd grade next year. She reads and writes better than my 1st graders." Again, I hesitated. She'll be so much younger than all the other 1st graders because they're turning 7 this year and she'll just be turning 6 next month. I'm not worried about her academically but it's the emotional/social aspect that I'm most worried about, and this decision would affect her entire k-12 school experience. Not a decision to be taken lightly. She won't get to date or get a driver's license until November of her Junior year in high school. Again, I asked Maxine whether she'd like to be with the 1st graders and she said, "Well, maybe after I turn 6." I kind of feel like she still acts like a Kindergartener, not a 1st grader. So I don't know.

If anyone has any opinions of the pros and cons of grade skipping, I'd love to hear about it. Don't hold back. Do you think she could handle first grade?

WWWOOOOOWWWW!!!

Merril ran the marathon today and the weather conditions were yucky! It rained on them for almost the entire race! Merril's estimate of around four hours was pushed back to about five. But he did it! He ran in the rain for 5 hours and I still can't believe it. We don't have the official times yet but we're hoping he came in under 5 hours. 4 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds would be wonderful! I don't know if I got a good picture yet so I'll do pictures later. (I'm going to ask family and friends if they snapped any good ones too.) Jared, his brother, ran the marathon too and came in a couple minutes ahead of Merril! They both did great and I'm glad he finished! He's even got the medal to prove it!




Later...Merril's official race time came in at 4 hours: 57 minutes: 58seconds so he barely made it under the 5 hour mark!! Great job babe!!

Lake FHE...

The weather was nice on Monday so we decided to go to the lake for Family Home Evening. Since it's October now, we're thinking it was our last lake day or one of the last. I think it's supposed to cool down next week. So here's one of the kids.

And one of us.

And then I wanted one of Juliet and me walking along the beach.

Merril kept the kids out of the shot for as long as possible. Finally, they couldn't resist.

And then we just laid around the beach for awhile. After about half an hour, a huge flock of big birds took off from across the cove. They flew in V formation and were nice looking white birds with black wing tips. Seagulls are common at the lake but these birds were different and seemed like the migratory sort. As they flew by, I said, "Those look like pelicans, don't they??" We watched their V formation fly to a muddy bump in the middle of the lake and settle in. As we left to go home, they were still resting there so decided to go have a closer look.

Sure enough, it was a flock of around 18 pelican birds. (Excuse the picture, I had the optical and digital zoom maxed out so it's grainy. The birds were jittery and this was as close and we could get.) Our lake is a nice migratory stop over for birds. When we come out in the late fall to go to the adjoining sand dunes, the lake is often covered with birds, but I've never seen pelicans before. It was groovy.

I've been busy working on my first patchwork quilt, something new and scary for me but lots of fun!

I also need to mention that our ward was re-organized on Sunday. We're part of the new ward that'll start going to the new church right by my house. We have the 9:00 slot and we'll be the first ward to the use the building, the Sunday after General Conference. At the meeting to divide the ward, the stake center was packed! The stake president got up to welcome everyone and said, "Our opening hymn will be 'I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go'..." and the whole congregation busted up laughing! Merril said that's the most spontaneous laughter he's ever heard in a meeting. We've been waiting for the changes for about a month and I think a lot of people were really worked up about it. I'll be missing some friends but our new ward will surely be just as wonderful.

AND, Merril will be running the marathon on Saturday!! If you're out on the route and see him (He'll be wearing red, of course) give him a big cheer!! I'll be posting pictures of his dead corpse Saturday afternoon.