Today I am thankful...

Today I am thankful that I am NOT a teacher!

Here are my boys, ready for school/work. Todd kept making stupid faces, and I told him this was going on the blog, so it's not my fault that he looks like a duh.

I got this picture of my dad off of my mom's blog.

His name is Floyd, so today he is Pink Floyd.

In the past, he has dressed up as the Salisbury Dough Boy (he is a bakery manager and his last name is Salisbury). Here's a picture from a previous Halloween, in case any of you missed it.

Dillon is a fire. His brothers were firefighters that year.

Great costumes, and great friends!

Our friends, Becky and Don, just stopped by to show me their costumes before heading to a Halloween party. Becky is a corpse bride, and Don....well, just check out his name tag below :o)

Becky and Don have been the best of friends/neighbors to us. They are the same age as my parents, but I get along with Becky as well as I do with any of my "young mother" friends. We talk on the phone quite regularly, and it's so nice sometimes to get her perspective since she's raised 7 kids. She always tells me that she'd love to go back to my "stage of life" with little kids at home, for just one year...and I tell her to keep reminding me of that :o). She does machine quilting like I do, so we share thread, stencils, and ideas.

Don is the local fire chief/EMT/contractor extraordinare. Whenever we have a question about anything related to home maintenance like "how can we wire a light in my quilting room?" or "why is there a river running through our backyard", or "why is our carbon monoxide detector beeping", or "Help! Our neice just fell down our stairs", or "do you have this tool" he comes running (at all hours) and is happy to help.

We are blessed to have them as friends.

I've been "4" Tagged

Here's the tag: Go into your pictures file, open the fourth folder, and then select the fourth picture.

Here's mine: This is Dillon when he was...I have no idea how old he was. I'm pretty sure the outfit is 0-3 mos.

I tag anyone who wants to play.

Therapy minded

Lots of times, as Todd is leaving for work in the morning, I'll kiss him goodbye and tell him to go out and "slay the dragon". I just want him to feel like he's my "knight in shining armor", and know that I appreciate all he does for our family.

This morning, when I repeated the usual phrase, he looked at me and said, "You know...I'm not really about slaying the dragon. I'm more about helping him overcome his anger issues so that we can all live in peace."

Somehow I don't think it would make a very good movie, but whatever. Go out and tame the dragon, Dear.

A few more things...

My sis-in-law, Viola Diva, brought up an important concern in her comment on the last post. She asked, "What about Milk duds? Do they count?"

You'll have to decide in your family if things like Milk Duds, Whoppers, Junior Mints, etc. count (since the ratio of chocolate to nasty stuff is not high enough) and then teach your children accordingly. In our house, there is a debate. Milk Duds are NOT acceptable to me, but they ARE to Todd. In this case, we let our children be the deciding vote, since they are the ones doing most of the work anyway. One could argue that anything other than a plain Hershey's bar is "polluted" with nuts, peanut butter, or caramel, but when forced to choose between polluted chocolate, or a dum dum, the choice my friends, is obvious. You may also wish to discuss tootsie rolls, since they are merely chocolate FLAVORED.

Another important thing to teach, is what the BACKSIDE of the candy bar wrapper looks like. They are usually very plain, but should never be judged by their cover. This is where the flash cards would again come in handy.

The last thing that I need to cover, is chocolate skittles. These are an abomination, and should not under any circumstances be considered chocolate.

Trick-or-treating skills

It's that time of year again. Time for the annual Family Home Evening lesson on trick-or-treating.

Of course, we always cover safety, and manners (always say thank you)....but the most important thing that we've tried to teach our kids is this:

When someone offers you a bowl full of assorted candy and lets you choose what you want...ALWAYS CHOOSE THE CHOCOLATE!

You can practice this most important skill with flash cards (like the picture shown) and have your child give the "right" answer as to which candy they would pick (there are lots of pictures online that you can print). The most obvious choice in this picture, is the Reese's right in the middle. But, upon further observation, you will notice that there is also a Butterfinger, AND a Milky Way. The more you practice with your flash cards, the quicker your child will be able to locate the chocolate.

You can also use our favorite method: role-playing.

Role playing is the most effective way that we have found to teach this important concept. Simply hold a bowl full of assorted candy in front of your kids, and gently slap their hands when they choose the wrong candy. It's called conditioning. And it works. And thanks to our yearly efforts, Todd and I are looking forward to enjoying Snickers, Milky Way, Reese's, Hershey's, and 100 Grands after our kids are nestled into bed this Friday night. It's a date.

For those of you who haven't bothered to teach this to your kids....enjoy the smarties and suckers.

(okay, so we really don't slap them...but you get the idea :o)

Back to the grind

Well...today is Monday and all is well.

After the kids finished throwing up this past week, Todd left for a 3 day training for work, and I had a crappy (hormonal) couple of days. I took my kids to school, then came home and went back to bed. Dillon just crawled in with me and watched me cry...poor kid. I got up at noon, and then went back to bed and watched movies for the rest of the day on our 7" portable DVD player. I felt sorry for myself, cried, and I think I got rid of the past two months worth of stress, because I am feeling SO much better now.

Before Todd came home, I managed to "pull myself together" and clean up the front room. I even went so far as to re-arrange (sort of), and when I needed a bench or table or something to put next to the piano, my friend Vanessa came through for me and gave me one in trade for some quilting. I actually ENJOYED myself, realized how much I missed ME, and then spent the next day at Vanessa's house working on MY OWN quilt.

Yesterday was our Primary Program, and since Todd and I are primary teachers, we sat in the choir seats with the children. The talks didn't get to me, but I struggled hard not to cry during every single song. The kids in my class were singing at the top of their lungs, and I couldn't help being overcome by the spirit. I have LOVED teaching primary with Todd this past year. He got called to be a bell ringer yesterday (Sunday School Secretary) and they asked him to keep his primary calling through the end of the year. He said his heart actually sank when he got the news that he was being released from primary. We've really enjoyed our class--they are a riot! All of the primary teachers in our ward are couples, so I have a feeling I'll be released as well.

Today I'm alive and kickin'. The front part of my house is clean, organized, and inviting; I'm headed off to tackle the dreaded quilt that I've been putting off for over a year, and I'm feeling motivated to paint either my hutch, or one section of my kitchen cabinets tomorrow (if I finish the dreaded quilt).

It's good to feel good again. A special thanks to my closest friends (these are the people who have put up with the most): Andrea, Vanessa, Linda, Mom, and of course Todd, for listening to me cry and complain for the past couple of months, and especially the past couple of weeks. And thanks to ALL of you who have commented, called, e-mailed, snail mailed, given hugs, prayed, or even thought about us. I feel your support and am so grateful for good friends. I feel truly blessed.

I "found myself again" by moving our old trunk (came with the house) to the middle of my livingroom as sort of a coffee table. I'm hoping it will reduce some of the clutter, and the kids' craziness by having less space to move around in here ;o)

The trunk was next to the piano (protecting it from kids running around the corner), but when I moved it to it's "coffee table position" I was left with this empty space. Vanessa called at the perfect time and offered this table which ended up fitting perfectly. I ran over and got it, and had my room put together before Todd arrived home. It's just so nice to have an inviting space to come home to, and for me it was nice to do something I love...stare at stuff and re-arrange :o)Todd is going to add a shelf to the bottom of the table, so I can have baskets or containers sitting there to house library books and winter gloves and hats (two things I never have a "place" for).

I moved my quilt ladder from the right side of the piano, to this cozy little corner where it just looks better. The quilt I worked on at Vanessa's house is a table topper to sit on my little octagon table (it was my great grandma's) which I plan to paint when I paint my hutch. We got the lamp on clearance at the big W store, and if anyone knows where I can get a tiny little berry wreath to sit on that empty "shelf" under the lampshade, please let me know.

Now I just need to lose a few (20 or 30) pounds and have a new family picture taken, since Dillon is 6 months old in this one.