Obituary

Tree "B"

Our beloved tree "B", 11, passed away on November 23, 2009 of a broken stand, following a 10 year battle with EndomyTREEosis.

She was born in 1998, at General Foam Plastics in Norfolk, Virginia. At a young age, she was shipped to Wal-Mart and placed on the very top shelf. She sold for $20, and spent 11 good years with our family.

Though she was only 6 feet tall, she was proud to be a Rocky Mountain Fir. She fought in the Toddler Wars of '01-'06, receiving a gold star for her bravery.

Tree "B" was flame retardent and made in the USA.

She was preceeded in death by every other Tree "B" sold at Wal-Mart in 1998. A closed box viewing will be held this afternoon, followed by burial in the storage room. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of M.T. Graves mortuary.

In January, following the after-Christmas-sales, she will undergo a stand-transplant and hopefully be ressurrected.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Graves Children Christmas fund.

The family would like to thank Brian Farm store for giving us their Black Friday sale price on Tree "C" a few days early, so that we could find closure with the mess that is currently in our livingroom.

Death Notice

Tree "B"
Our beloved tree "B" passed away on November 23, 2009. Funeral arrangements will be under the direction of M.T. Graves mortuary. A complete obituary will appear in a future post.

I know it's early, but under the circumstances...

I have decided that I would like a Superman Party for my birthday.

I know, I know. My birthday is not until May, and Superman is science fiction. It is common knowledge that Felicia doesn't "do" science fiction.

But...I have two words for you.

tom. welling.

I recently discovered Smallville. I wasn't too thrilled about it at first, but there's just enough "love story" to keep my interest, and plenty of action for Todd. It's the perfect show for us to watch together. We're not even finished with season one, but I'm hooked.

I love that Superman came from a good family, and that there's an example of that on TV these days.

And I love that it takes place in the middle of nowhere.

And oh, how I love that smile.

So, Pianoman and Violadiva, if you happen to run into tom at the grocery store, would you please tell him that his presence has been requested at my birthday party in May?

Homemade Motivational Posters

I was going through my picture files today, and found these posters I made over the summer. If anyone out there has just the right picture, it could be a fun Christmas gift idea.

I had this one printed for Todd's office. He shows The Karate Kid to his students at work to teach the "wax on, wax off" concept, as well as "balance".

This one's my favorite:

Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example and not his advice.

Whine flu epidemic

We've had a whining problem at our house, and I had WAY too much time to think on our five hour drive home from Cache Valley last night, so I came up with this FHE lesson:

For the rest of this week, when we hear whining, we will raise the red yarn on the "whineometer", and the guilty party will have to take a "Gratiflu tablet", write down what they are thankful for, and place it in the "glass of water" pocket.

For example, if the room is just "too messy to clean" then we will be grateful to have so many toys.

And if we wish for ice cream, instead of crackers,for our after-school snack, then we will be grateful just to have food.

And my personal favorite from last week: If someone simply cannot participate in family scripture study because he "wants to sit right here" and his scriptures are "way over there" then we will be grateful that we have legs to walk all the way across the livingroom to get them.

For the lesson part, we will talk about how the Savior set the perfect example for us, by submitting to the will of Heavenly Father during his greatest trial by saying, “Father, if thou be willing remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Jesus trusted that Heavenly Father knew best.

Sometimes we get upset when things don't go the way we want them to, and we whine or complain. We need to learn to recognize our blessings during those difficult times.

Whining or complaining shows ingratitude. We will use examples (like the ones above) to help everyone recognize blessings amid their trials.

Just as we wash our hands to prevent germs, we can prevent whining and ingratitude by counting our blessings.

Colored Cookie Sprinkles

I discovered something the other day and thought I'd share. My kids were decorating sugar cookies for Halloween, and they wanted orange sprinkles but we didn't have any.

I did have plain white (large grain) sugar sprinkles, so I put a couple Tbsp. in a ziplock baggie, and added a few drops of food coloring. I squished the bag around and in a few seconds I had orange sprinkles.

I just spread them out on a plate to dry for a minute, and then the kids sprinkled them on the cookies. It worked great, and was cheaper and faster than running to the store for another container of sprinkles.

So glad that Halloween is over!

Unfortunately, procrastinating is one of my greatest talents. I called my mom at 9:00 AM on Halloween and said, "I need a bat costume by 5:00".

I told her my plans, and with her reassurance that I could do it, I spent half of the day hand-sewing bat wings onto a black sweatshirt.

I hate Halloween.

Trunk or treat is the best thing that ever happened. You get the whole thing over with in 20 minutes flat.

The boys did good this year. They finally understand the concept of choosing the chocolate over the suckers and smarties, and my waistline is going to prove it.

Brayden loved his bat costume:
Caleb and Dillon were easy. Caleb wore white sweats that we already had, and his clone helmet. Dillon chose to be "Super Dillon" once again, and that was fine with me.

I counted last night, and Dillon has eight pieces of candy left. I have no idea how many he started with, but I gave out well over 150. No wonder he was so "sweet" at bedtime...

Pumpkin carving

Our kids haven't had the chance to carve pumpkins for years. I was dreading the whole experience, but it actually turned out to be quite fun.

Todd was in charge of helping Dillon, and after much debate, he chose to use his sheetrock knife rather than his sawzall. I think it was a good choice.

Brayden did most of his himself...guts and all. He loved every minute of it.

I told Caleb he had to do this himself, thinking that if he hated it we wouldn't have to do it next year, but I eventually broke down and scraped the pulp out for him.

The boys chose their patterns online, and were thrilled with the outcome.

Brayden's bat, Dillon's jack, and Caleb's ghost.