This is what happens when...

...you're wiring a plug and it arcs.
(look at the "bite" out of the screwdriver)

... a five year old puts a lighter on top of a wood burning stove.
(with a fire inside)

Both, by the way, are accompanied by a VERY loud pop. The wire sent sparks all over, and the exploding lighter shot pieces in every direction, all the way into my kitchen.

Notice what's missing?

We took our half wall out, and oh how I love it open!

Out with the gold...

2 days of chaos and very little sleep - FREE
a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper - $4.00
a trip to the ER to x-ray Dillon's foot after he stepped on a nail - $217.50
(isn't it sad that I knew how much the x-ray was going to cost before I took him in?
I'm pretty sure this was his 7th x-ray this year)
2 trips to Home Depot - $947.26 + gas

Taking the carpet out of my dining area and tossing the
puke orange "lino" from my kitchen - PRICELESS!

Shhhh.....It's a secret!

On November 30th, Caleb's kindergarten class is going to make a gingerbread man. When they go to get it out of the oven, it will have disappeared.

His teacher would appreciate it if some of you would send postcards to his class telling them that you have spotted their gingerbread man where you live. They will then find the location on a map and keep track of where their gingerbread has traveled. Right before Christmas, he will find his way back to their classroom.

Please mail a postcard to:

Ms. Davis' Kindergarten
Loa Elementary School
PO Box 130
Loa, UT 84747

Please mail postcards by December 12th, so they will get here before Christmas break.


Here is an example:

Dear Ms. Davis' class,
My name is Aunt Kim, I am Sally's aunt. I just wanted to let you know that I spotted the gingerbread man here in Texas. He was wearing a cowboy hat. He got away before I could catch him.
Sincerely, Aunt Kim

Tagged

Ok, so I'm supposed to be downstairs cleaning and getting ready for Uncle Ben and Aunt Carrie to stay with us tomorrow night, but my friend Shauntae "tagged" me, so I have to fill this stuff out. Besides, I haven't posted to my blog in like forever (about 2 1/2 hours at least).

Since I did this on my blog not too long ago, I'll change some of the categories.

1. Five things I'm thankful for:
- My testimony and membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
- My family and friends
- Cell phones and Computers
- Indoor Plumbing and tampons
- Hot Fudge Brownie Sundaes, Smoothies from Jamba Juice, and onions (not together)
Narrowing this list to 5 is way too hard...

2. Five Vehicles I've Owned (or driven as my own):
-'79 Subaru
-'94 Mazda Protege
-'95 Mercury Villager
-'99 Honda CRV
-'00 GMC Sierra
(the Protege was the worst; the Honda was my favorite)

3. Five Places I've Volunteered:
- "Sure I can have that quilt done by yesterday..."
- "We need an asparagus costume by tomorrow--My mom can do that!"
- "I guess I'll do Pennies by the Inch because I'm an Achievement Day's leader, even though I don't agree with children collecting money door-to-door, and even though I called the Church Office Building and found out that it's not the church asking me to do it, it's Primary Children's Hospital, and I'd rather just donate a quilt to the cause instead..."
- Bulletin Boards at Loa Elementary
- I offered to help the elementary school get their computer lab up and running so the kids here can learn keyboarding, but so far nobody has taken me up on my offer.

4. Five (or more) Songs I love:
- How Firm a Foundation, The Spirit of God, Come Come Ye Saints, Away in a Manger (my boys' lullaby), the 4th verse of The Star Spangled Banner, 2nd verse of We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet, the words to Today, While the Sun Shines.
- Josh Groban's version of Angels We Have Heard on High
- I Wanna Soak Up the Sun by Sheryl Crow, Bad Day (Daniel somebody), "Even though we ain't got money..." song by Kenny Loggins, Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi
- Find Yourself by Brad Paisley, Just Another Day in Paradise by Phil Vassar, shoot I could go on all day but I have to get downstairs and clean.

5. Five Things I want to see happen in the next Five Years:
- the boys' baptisms
- finish our basement OR move to a house with at least 3 bedrooms and a garage
- be done having kids and have the majority in school ALL day
- have our credit card paid off and be living on Todd's income alone, so I can quilt for FUN
- have my house clean for three days in a row.

Welcome to the GRAVES yard

Most of you have seen our GRAVES yard sign, but I wanted a picture of it in the "journal" that my mom prints from our blog. Since it's Thanksgiving this week I probably ought to take it down. As my sister so eloquently stated in a previous comment, "Halloween is so last month".

This is what Todd and I "do" together. I design "stuff", he builds it, and then I paint it. I think it's our only common hobby. We don't do it very often any more because there's never time, but I've been itching to create stuff this past week, so hopefully we can squeeze in a few "dates" this winter.

The galloping horse rule

When we started painting our house (which, by the way, was supposed to be done before I planted flowers last spring), we were aiming for perfection. We carefully removed all the peeling paint, made sure there were no spiderwebs in the nooks and crannies, and taped and taped and taped and we might as well have been using a tole-painting brush.

Now that it's November, we're going with the galloping horse rule:
If you ride by on a galloping horse and it looks OK, it's good enough.

As you can see by the pictures, it still doesn't pass the horse test, but I wanted to show that we're at least making progress. We still have to finish the trim, and do lots of touch up, but we're getting there.

Todd spent the better part of Saturday building the lattice "blocker" to hide all our "white-trash" crap. Hopefully in the next few weeks "we" can build window boxes for each of the windows. We'll paint them the darker brown like the chimney to add a little interest.

Does anyone have any suggestions for the color of my front door? I first painted it "shitbrindle" (my favorite color), but I hated it. Now it's the color of the trim, but I think it looks too white. I don't want it the same color as the house, and the chimney color doesn't look good next to the screen door. I could paint the screen door, but I want to leave it dark for now 'cause it makes the dark window frames look okay. When we can afford new windows, I'll probably change the door, but for now I need ideas. It's such a "boring" looking house...I can't wait to plant colorful wave petunias in my window boxes. :o)


It's such a shame that we are SO close to finishing, and yet I think it's finally too cold. We probably need about 8 more hours to finish up the trim and be done, and now I'm afraid it's gonna have to wait until Spring. :o(
There's supposed to be a storm coming in today....sure looks like it, huh?

Felicia and elephants remember.....or do they?

Grandma used to say that Felicia and elephants remember.....
but I'm here today to prove her wrong.

It's 3:20 PM and I just realized that I haven't eaten yet today. From the time I stepped out of the shower this morning I've either been on the phone, on the computer, or running errands.

I got both boys to school LATE today, spent money I didn't have on Christmas decorations I don't need, forgot to tell my kids that I was the crossing guard today and they'd need to walk to the corner to meet me after school, and to top it off, I forgot to play tooth fairy last night. We had weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth (all but one tooth) when there was no quarter in Brayden's pillow this morning.

To fix the problem, I went to the bank while he was at school and got one of the brand new "Utah" quarters. Then I left a note from the tooth fairy (sprayed with glitter), that explained why she was late. She knew he needed the new Utah quarter for his coin collection, but she had to wait until the bank opened this morning to get it. Pretty clever, huh? Brayden laughed when he realized why she didn't come last night.

Now I think I'll go eat breakfast, and then lunch, and then start fixing dinner. Maybe I'll even do some work around the house today, too. But then again, maybe I'll forget.

Halloween

Since my kids were wearing the same costumes for the third year in a row, I didn't take any pictures yesterday. Luckily, Caleb's kindergarten teacher just e-mailed this picture of his class. I thought it was pretty cute.