I guess there is one thing to be said for working in the marketing department of a huge company, and that would be that you are amongst creative geniuses!
My hubby just sent me this photo of his department at work. Every year the entire company puts everyone in charge of decorating their own departments for all of the families to come trick or treating to in the afternoon.
The kids are beyond excited. Last year they made more of a haul at Tracey's work than they did in the entire time that they spent walking around our neighborhood.
Last year Tracey's department decorated their section as "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and won, warranting a free lunch for the entire group to Tucanos! I'm sure they will clean up again this year.
Yeah. I always seem to just barely miss something. Well, maybe this year it wasn't even the case of "barely" miss, but considerably miss.
Yesterday I popped up the canyon to try and catch some photos of the boys in the beautiful fall colors, but I sorta missed out on the "beautiful fall colors" part by, oh, probably about 2 or 3 weeks.
It's been on my mind for the past month, but we've just been so busy.
No worries....maybe next year I'll get with the program before it's too late!
These are a few of the better photos that I got yesterday. Unfortunately my computer is still sick, so I don't get to play with any of my favorite actions. These photos are pretty much straight off the ol' card which just isn't as exciting to look at. Oh well! :0)
What were they thinking by getting tossed out of the garden....bringing upon the world these noxious weeds?
I swear, all it seems that I've been doing in my free time over the past few days has been weeding. At first it was fine and dandy having the baby out there with me, but once I uncovered the window wells he's had quite the infatuation with throwing things down them. Not a huge deal, except I know he's bound to accidentally throw himself down one of them and, well, that would just not be good. And knowing him, he'd choose to fall down the one that has the snake in it. Blech! So now I am limited to weeding during nap times only.
So yeah, Adam, Eve...oh first parents of ours....thanks a lot for the never ending battle of unwanted vegetation. Well, I guess I should thank you cause if you didn't take the plunge to get yourselves tossed out of your perfect little paradise then I wouldn't be sitting here typing this!
Back to the grind tomorrow! Only 2 sections left....the two worst ones of course....that have never been done since we moved in 2 years ago. LOVELY!
Man, what a great day it ended up being yesterday. Even though "team B" (the boys) were into everything, drawing on the walls (JM), whining that they were sick (Aaron - which ended up being legit!), I had such a great day.
Last night Tracey and I were able to go to the Mount Timpanogos Temple together for the first time in way too long. It was just one of those days where I had a prayer in my heart all day long that Tracey would get some of the answers that he would need to fine tune the next version of the RNG, so that it will be a success, and that we will be able to continue to provide for our needs, help others, and save for the boys' missions as well as for our own mission.
Sometimes when I go to the temple I'm just not in the right mind set to be there, or I'm anxiously counting down the minutes until we're done and I can get back to the kids, but last night was so spiritually satisfying to me that I could have sat next to Tracey, in the celestial room contemplating things all night long.
As soon as we got out of the temple I turned to Tracey and asked him if he figured out his technical problems that he wants to perfect and he laughed and said "it's not that easy".
I just turned to him and said it's not going to take long and I have full faith in that. He smiled and said thanks.
I also have to thank Jana from the bottom of my heart for being so willing to come and sit with the kids while were gone even though she had to put up with a whiney Aaron and not feeling good herself. It totally means so much to me. Love you girl.
Wow...another no-photo post. Ick! I'm sorry. I'm going to get ranked into the boring blog world soon, aren't I?
Well, last week was good/not good.
I miserably failed on the no lunch thing. In fact, I'll be adding $4 / 4 items to the pot for last week.
However, I rocked it on the exercise. Granted, I barely fit in my 4 hour goal, but I calculated that I ran nearly 16 miles last week! As much as I think I hate it when I'm doing it, it sure makes me feel good to have accomplished something so significant.
Another thing this challenge has done for me is really made me realize how easy it is to just make dinner. I think so far this entire month, we've only gone out to eat two nights for dinner (aside from weekends) and one of those was last night.
Oh and hey....for those of you that haven't seen, I still have a lot of scrappy product that I am selling for dirt cheap. You can check out my blog GOING CHEAP to see the product that I have. I am out of a couple of the items but for the most part I can totally hook you up!
So there you have it....another $4 / 4 items to the pot.
That's right scrappers! Robyn Weatherspoon is such a little starlet and has set up an online community for Out Of This Funk.
I'm so honored to be a part of such an amazing group of designers and am so excited that we now have a home where all of YOU can share your creative goodness with us!
Go HERE, sign up to become a member, and you could become one of 5 guest designers to have your work featured on the Outta This Funk blog!
I need to get my hiney in gear and get posting over there. I've taken somewhat of a hiatus from the message board world, but it will be great to be active again!
Oh man. This morning Aaron was making enough "boy sounds" to actually make my stomach churn.
Where do they learn these things from?
On another note, I'm so excited. I scrapped a little more on that gift album that I started for my friend at WRMK whose wife just had a baby. I'm actually almost done with it and I think it's pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. It's given me the itch to scrap again so I'm thinking I need to get a date set with my sisters to go scrap soon.
I also have to say that I love a good run. I love starting my day out running. It's always a mistake when I don't start out that way, cause then I get lazy and don't end up exercising, and the mental benefits of keeping active far outweigh any other aspect of it.
Even though it's pretty friggin' cold and it fries my lungs to breathe in the cold air, somewhere about half way through my 3.5 mile course it just feels good. Feels good to be active. Feels good to be doing something for me.
However speaking of running I had to give up before I even began. Tracey and I decided to pass on our Snow Canyon 1/2 marathon next month. Not cause I'm not ready to do it (not so sure about Tracey), but we decided that since we had just had a pricey trip to Yellowstone that we'd better pass on another expensive weekend so soon. I'm planning on running a Turkey Trot with my friend Michelle H. on Thanksgiving though, so that will count for something. Will allow for an extra piece of pie anyway!
I guess I also get a more romantic Anniversary date out of this though. Tracey and I are either going to go to Park City that same weekend we had planned to do the 1/2 or haul the kids to my inlaws and have some kid free time here. We'll likely do that so that we can have a good dinner and go to a movie and maybe even do a little Christmas shopping. Plus there is a Spiderman run for Cancer on that Saturday morning, so we might do that as well. We'll see....not commiting to much at this point other than to a night without kids, and that my friends.....WILL BE GLORIOUS!
So the other night I found myself parousing the bubble bath aisle over at Smiths. I've been having a yucky spell with the depression recently and thought a lovely bubble bath would be just the right thing. Now don't worry about me. It's really nothing more than feeling utterly and completely overwhelmed with motherhood and the never ending challenges that go along with it, which in turn feeds other things. Nasty cycle it is. Maybe it's time to up my dose! HA HA! Or remember to take it anyway.
Anyhow, as I stood there viewing my options I came across the box of Calgon.
Calgon....Take Me Away!
YESSSSSSSSSSS......that's EXACTLY what I needed. My thoughts rushed back to my childhood and the Calgon commercials that made me so jealous that someone could have such a delightfully bubbly bath. I mean, I can totally remember the lady sprawled out in her mountains of bubbles being whisked off in her thoughts to some field of flowers. Yes. That was exactly what was in order for me.
So I get home, get the kids taken care of and lock myself away for my mental reprieve in a bubbly oasis.
Ummmm...
WRONG!
I don't know what kind of magic the lady in the commercials possessed other than perhaps using a bottle of Dawn dishsoap. I got nothin' more than a few spit bubbles. Seriously. I even put in double the recommended amount cause I wanted to disappear in suds. I even turned on the jets to perpetuate the bubbly process and you guessed it. NOTHING.
So my advice to you is, forgoe the box of Calgon. She lies. She's not gonna take you away ANYWHERE. Stick with the Thomas bubbles.
So I wasn't the only one that forgot an important piece of equipment during our Yellowstone vacay. My hubby forgot his tripod, so all of his video was shot handheld. I still think he did an amazing job.
All of the video that he shot in this footage was done using a static RNG and a wax screen. I know that doesn't really mean much to most of the world, but I do have to say that the bokeh is exquisite. (That one was for you baby. See I do pay attention!)
Really, if you pay attention to the blurred background of the video, the "bokeh" which is the blurry dots has a very nice quality to it because of the wax screen. It has a very cinematic feel which is what having an RNG will do for your regular digital video camera. You can make MOVIES! Yee haw!
Last night for FHE we decided to take the kids to this pumpkin patch that I've driven by a few times. The place is absolutely HUGE so I knew that without a doubt we'd find the perfect pumpkins to bring home.
Maddison...the ever studious student set forth estimating how many pumpkins were in the patch, rather than looking for the prized pick.
JM was just as happy as could be to be the ever wandering free spirit that he is amongst the field of orange.
Aaron, Tess and Sarah set right to work...finding the perfect pumpkin. Aaron the funny nut found a "butt pumpkin". I think I'll even go and take a photo of it. It's very unique...for sure!
Now I just want to know when on earth it started getting dark so early. I was really looking forward to getting some fun shots in the pumpkin fields, but nope.....daylight was all but gone when we got there at 6:45.
Oh well....I guess I'll just have to take them back!
After that we came home and finished up our treats to "BOO" some of our neighbors. The kids got the biggest kick out of being able to go doorbell ditching and have it be okay!
BTW - Becky and Beth...I haven't forgotten your RAKS. I just need to get my hiney to the post office. We are NOT very good friends.
Ahhhhh....it feels good to be back home. As much as I love, love, love traveling, I've discovered that I don't love, love, love traveling with 5 kiddos, especially when the youngest thinks that spending more than 5 minutes contained in a car seat has got to be the biggest torture possible on the entire face of the planet.
Our trip to Yellowstone was actually lovely....once we were there. Well with the exception of the fact that I FORGOT MY CAMERA BATTERY. Ugh. Yeah. I was SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to take photos of my kiddos in such a beautiful part of the world, and went to snap off a couple of shots and nuttin'. Much to my dismay, and my attempt at being prepared, I left my camera battery in the charger at home. I guess when you're trying to pack up an entire family of seven and all of their belongings with the exception of the hubby, cause he's kinda picky about what clothes he wears, you're bound to forget something. I do love my camera dearly and wouldn't trade her for the world...well, unless Jenn wanted to give me HER camera, cause we all know that Canon's rule the world, allthough my next door neighbor would care to differ. He just hasn't had his camera palate elevated to such an exquisite level as Jenn and I. ( ;0) )
Anyhow, I'm just sad that I couldn't run to the store and buy some double A's.
No worries. Maddi and Sarah took about a gazillion photos on the little (shhhhhhhhhhhh) Nikon so at least we did get the trip documented, and of course I had to be the geeky tourist snapping a few photos on her camera phone. Tracey was making fun of me, but I am happy that I now have a very cute wall paper for my phone of all of my kiddos.
I'm so grateful that G&G Lee could go with us. I really love that they are such a big part of our kids' lives. I never had those fond memories with my grandparents - or very few at least - so I very much treasure that my kids know and love all of their grandparents and that we are able on occasion to share these little one on one times with them.
The weather was perfect. We thought we would freeze and I'm sure that anyone that could take a peek into my packing of the van would be mistaken that we were on a trip to The North Pole rather than to Yellowstone Yeah. I have a box of 40 hand warmers. Anyone want one?
I think my very favorite thing we saw was the Artist Paint Pots. It was one that we had to kind of hike to, but very worth it. The kids got the biggest kick out of the mud spitting all over. I think Tracey got some video of it so I'm sure we'll see a Yellowstone montage soon.
Well lets see. I may as well give an update on my "Lay it on the line" challenge. Let's just say that I'm counting last week as a blow out. I can't remember what the term is that my SIL uses when she has a bad day doing weight watchers, but I figure that I am entitled to the same priveledge. Vacation really messed me up. But then again, that is to be expected when you don't have the routines of home.
I know I owe $2 since I ate lunch out twice last week, before our trip and I think we ate out the night before our trip. Honestly I can't remember.
I did find a great article that kind of jazzed me up to get running again. One of the head trainers on the Biggest Loser said that flat out the #1 best way to lose wight - or in her exact words - to watch it MELT off is to run. I firmly believe that as I am living proof of, since I lost 10 pounds in 5 weeks from really nothing more than running. It's just good to hear it again, from a real "source".
So there you have it! $2 more bucks to the pot and I am fired up to do great this week. I think I'm even going to make my SIL go walking with me a couple of times a week as some added bonus workouts for me!
So last Friday night I went scrapping. It was one of those days where I positively HAD to get out because my climber was making me positively insane. It was one of those days where Tracey took one look at me when he walked in the door and knew that it was a good thing that I was leaving. :0)
I dare say it was the most unproductive night of scrapbooking EVER, but it sure was a much needed break and down right fun. Thanks Tracey for always being so willing and supportive of watching the kids so that I can have a break.
I didn't do much at all. I've been wanting to make a little mini album for one of my buddies that works at WRMK whose wife just had their 4th kiddo. They are tough and always wai† to find out what they are having until the baby is born, so I couldn't exactly get a jump start on the album. I'm happy they had a girl, because I ADORE the Nonsense line from WRMK and was dying to use it.
Unfortunately I suffer greatly from ADD I do believe, so I only got the cover and a few pages for the inside done.
I then spent about an hour making these two birthday cards with some Karen Foster goodies that I've been meaning to work with for wayyyyyyyyy too long.
So here's my "Laying it on the line" week two totals.
Eat out: THREE TIMES - Ugh. But honestly that is SO much better than normal. Once with Tracey, once with Michelle and once with my dad. (Into the pot $2) Dinner at home: Every night baby! I'm so proud of me! Exercise: 3 hours and 20 min. Dang it. I missed out on my goal of 4 hours by 40 lousy minutes. After running 5.8 miles around Stansbury Park on Saturday afternoon, I was exhausted, and by the time I thought about going to the gym on Sat. night to lift weights, I figured that paying a buck was a good deal to be able to relax. I'm still pretty dang proud of myself. I ran almost 13 miles last week also did a Billy Blanks workout. (Into the pot $1)
Now here's the deal with this week. Because we are going on vacation, obviously we are going to have to eat out. So for this week there will have to be eating out exception during our vacation. I am going to do my absolute best to get my exercise in this week and will make dinner while we are still home.
Total pot: $4 / 4 scrappy items Have a great day everyone!
Well, I have to say that I'm doing fairly well this week. Granted, I do owe another $1 to the pot.
Yesterday Michelle and I went to see the Witches at Gardiner Village. Originally we had planned to do that on Aarons birthday but since Tracey took the day off we decided to go yesterday. And well, how do you go and do something fun like that without attaching lunch to the ticket?
Originally we had planned to go to McDonalds, but I didn't favor having to chase JM out of the Gerbil cages. It's not bad letting him play when I have his big sisters around to chase him out, but I REALLY didn't feel like having to be the one to fetch the monkey, so we opted for Apollo Burger instead.
Good choice.
Anyone that truly knows me will know that if I am asked what my very favorite food on the planet is, I would answer with onion rings from Apollo Burger. They are straight from heaven. I couldn't help but snap this photo with my phone yesterday to send to my hubby to rub it in that I was eating there without him.
(Don't be alarmed....I didn't eat the entire order of onion rings....too many!)
The boys are so cute to watch together. I really love that Aaron and Drake are so close in age and love each other to pieces. If Aaron could hang with his Drakie ever day he would for sure!
Oh and MY favorite score of the day? This cute new bag....for $10! It makes me HAPPY!
I know I'll be adding another dollar to the pot tomorrow since my dad is taking me to lunch. Still 3 times to lunch in a week is better than I've been doing. And I'm doing well with the exercise. I've ran probably 7 miles this week so far and have done one of the stinkin' flippin' hard Billy Blanks workouts.
I got more bang for my buck with JM than I ever bargained for. You know, we really didn't pay more than $25 to have both Maddison and Sarah thanks to awesome Amsco health insurance, Tess and Aaron were freebies thanks to the military and well, JM.....yeah....he cost us around $4,500. I guess Heavenly Father wanted us to feel like we got the most for our money with this kid, cause he keeps me hopping.
There isn't a minute of the day that he's not getting into SOMETHING. (As I'm sitting here typing this and he's by my feet trying to pull DVD's out of their cases). I've finally consented to the fact that my house is going to be a clutter zone thanks to Mr. Tornado and 4 other kids that can't seem to pick up after themselves. I mean, I COULD have a perfectly picked up house, but then again, that is ALL I would do all day long.....is become JM's shadow, piecing back together the destruction zone.
So, my little whirlwind of a child......thank you? I think? For what you are giving me right now in my life.
Hey, if nothing else, I get my exercise, chasing him off of the kitchen table, or the dresser or off of TRACEY's night stand (notice it's not MY night stand overflowing with junk....HA HA), or off of the computer desk
or off of my scrapbook desk, or off of my Cricut stand, or out of the bathroom or out of the toilet or out of Tracey's filing cabinet or.....or......or.........
Oops! Gotta run...quite honestly someone left a chair at the table and he's up on top of it now! The kid doesn't think to climb back off the table onto the chair. One of these days he's gonna break his arm falling off onto the tile.
So yesterday I decided to make my Spicy Pork Chili since fall is definitely in the air. Heaven only knows 6 cans of Great Northern Beans, pork and some jalapenos (amongst other ingredients) is a delightful way to kick off the official feel of fall.
As we were sitting around the table Aaron turns to me and says...."Mom, how come you have a hexagon bowl." Okay, so give the boy come credit that it's really an octagon rather than a hexagon, but hey....not bad coming from a newly appointed 4 year old! Looks like Moose A. Moose and the nightly dose of Noggin is paying off! ;0)
So I've officially finished up 5 days of my October "Laying it on the Line" challenge to myself. I was good. Only went to lunch once with Tracey during 10/1 - 10/3 and that was the day that we took Aaron to the Dinosaur place for his birthday. I exceeded my 4 hours of exercise. I made dinner every night - well the Wed. and Thurs. anyway. Remember Friday night through the weekend is not part of the game.
HOWEVER.....
I caved and 2 hours short of the weekend, I bought a Diet Coke on the way home from the Dinosaur Place. After listening to Aaron scream for 45 minutes because of his knee and the baby screaming his head off for who knows what reason, I needed my crutch of a Diet Coke to soothe the soul. I should have been strong. It was a HORRID mix. Didn't even drink but a few sips of it, but alas....I CAVED.
So there you have it folks. $1 in the pot / 1 scrappy item in the box.
Here's hoping this week can be no more than a $1 as well! :0)
I'm off to torture myself with Billy Blanks now.
Here's my chili recipe ifn's you're interested. BTW - It's REALLY good with Chicken too.
Spicy Pork Chili
1 ½ lb. pork tenderloin, cubed 2 large onions, diced 4 celery rib, diced 2 tablespoons butter 6 cans (15.5 oz each) great northern beans, rinsed and drained 4 cans (14.5 oz each) chicken broth 2 cups water 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped 2 teaspoons chili powder ½ teaspoon each white pepper, cayenne pepper, ground cumin and pepper 2 garlic cloves, minced ½ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon dried parsley flakes /4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, optional 1 cup (4ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Directions:
In a large pot, cook the pork, onions and celery in butter until meat is browned. Stir in the next 13 ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1-1/2 hours. Uncover; simmer 30-40 minutes longer or until chili reaches desired consistency. Sprinkle with cheese.
Oh man. I about busted a gut when I saw this commercial that Tracey put together the other day for one of the new versions of the RNG that will be coming out soon. He's got some great commercials up his sleeve, this being one of 5 or 6. I can't wait to see how his "viral campaign" goes. Hopefully well!
Anyhow, here is living proof of my "dramaddison" in Aaron form.
So it's not really Aaron's birthday today. He turned 4 on Friday, but I've been having computer issues so I finally begged Tracey to let me use his baby so that I could post something. I tell you what. I'm having posting withdrawls for sure!
I can't believe that Aaron has been with us for 4 years. He's such a funny kid. You know, for all of those people that told me when I was pregnant with him, as he was our first boy, that boys were "so much easier", I'm here to say that in 4 years of living with him that he's equally as dramatic as our oldest! However, I wouldn't trade him for the world. Despite being a drama queen himself, it's been so much fun to have a little dude in the house. I guess I'm lucky in the sense that he's also very much a momma's boy, and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't have about 20 sunggles, kisses and just a sweet little buddy to hang out by my side.
By a stroke of luck, Tracey took the day off work to meet with his machinist about the new version of the RNG35 that is in the works, and since the meeting was up in Ogden we decided to take Aaron to the Spencer Eccles Dinosaur Park. None of us had ever been there before so it was something fun to see.
We had a great time with the exception of Aaron being scared to death of the robotic dinosaurs. Actually that was kind of humorous to watch. Even JM, the kid with no fear showed a little trepidation. We had fun exploring the grounds until Aaron scraped his knee and then the dramatics shot sky high. A worker lady brought us a band aid for his knee, cause well, ya know....I still haven't learned to be a prepared mother even after having 5 kids. The silly dude was screaming his head off and the lady just looked at me and said...."Well, I'll let you figure that one out!". HA HA!
On the way home we stopped at the store and let Aaron pick out his own cake, cause uh, yeah...5 kids? Who has time to make a cake! ;0) After we came home we sang happy birthday and did presents. Aaron was thrilled with his "bone pillow" that Maddison made for him and his "Batman - Bat Cave".
To top the evening off we went swimming with the entire family. It was making me giggle for as excited as Aaron was to swim, he sure was beyond timid about getting in the water.
He's such a fun kid. I'm so glad that he's come to live with us. I'm so glad that he has his little brother to be his chum too.
Yup.
Life is good. (With the exception of my lame-o-jacked up computer.)
