Happy Halloween!!

There was an orchestra concert last night. Kelsea was first chair for the first piece they played and so that meant she tuned the orchestra. Amber was asked to play piano for the 2nd piece and it was the prettiest piece of music. I loved hearing them practice together at home.

Not all the schools in Boise let the kids dress up for Halloween. But our school does. Today they got out early so it was one huge party day. Here are my girls in the parade.

Kylee is Meg from Hercules. Autumn is Rosella or Rosetta-I don't know her name-from the Tinkerbell stories. As if you don't know what Hannah is...

There is a really good cook of a mom that has a daughter in Kylee's class. She made the 3 trays of crazy cupcakes. Oh my gosh they were so cute and so I had to take a picture.

The pictures to go with blogging

Pepper playing Disney Scene it with Autumn. She is so smart-the rabbit. Of course Autumn is too.

I failed to mention that Autumn and Hannah both received awards last week. Autumn got a Personal best award and Hannah got Student of the month.

Little trumpet boys came and messed up our house.

At the banquet where the kids did hilarious skits, Amber's band teacher gave her and the other two DMs flowers and a card and said nice things.

On the field for competition.

Views form the show in the nose bleed section.

The finish and the award.

What a pretty pie. Good job Kelsea.

Last Basketball. Winning ribbons

Our remotes. Our Red Green show special remote. Try to eat that remote sofa! 3 worked better than 4 though. And our bedroom remote.

Hannah's banana. Har har

Is it almost Halloween already?

We are almost ready for Halloween. The girls carved pumpkins last night while I created Hannah's monkey costume. I made a stuffed banana without a pattern. Just made one up out of felt. I am making her a hat thing. I need to sew ears on and put felt on a shirt for a belly and make a tail to pin on her brown sweat pants. The older two are ready. Amber will be doing pep band and a football playoff game that night and I have no idea where Kelsea is off to.

Kylee and Autumn are having their last game against the other team from their school today and then there will be a pizza party. I might have to play some basketball tonight for the parent game. Lee Joe is doing the Thursday night one with Kylee and the 6th grade.

The feedback Amber and everyone else is getting from their performance was so positive. I keep seeing and hearing from people that saw it. I didn't see anybody that night except one family from our ward. They are all saying great things. Amber said they watched the video of it yesterday and everyone was excited watching because they felt so good about what they did. That is the best reward for them all.

The Good and the bad

The good news is-I don't want to fill up my car with gas. Not because the price of gas is too high but because it is dropping daily.

Randa paid us a visit this weekend to see Amber's band performance and the bonus was our primary program was today. I only have two left in primary now to watch. That was strange.

The band did a fantastic job. It was great. The music was well played and they looked good, the audience loved it-not just the parents of our kids. I had a mom of one of Amber's friend tell me she just watched Amber and not the band with her binoculars because she was so into directing. I had another set of parents tell me they enjoyed watching her as well. Amber loved it until the awards...

The bad news-the judges didn't think so. Everyone is in shock with their 4th place finish in their division. A band that didn't have a color guard took second and they should have had an autuomatic 10 point deduction for that. They were not as good at all. The band that took 3rd was not good at all. The band that took 1st was boring and did a "safe" show. The band teacher didn't sleep much in the 3 days leading up to Saturday he was so excited at how good their show was and he was so upset with the results that he couldn't even look at the judges remarks. The timer guy was shocked, the bus driver was shocked, all the other drum majors told ours that they couldn't believe it. So it was sad and they were soo good. This weekend is filled with a big let down for all the kids and many of the parents too.

We did get TP-ed Friday night with chalk all over the sidewalk and driveway. The boys that did it wrote their names on the sidewalk. We know who they are! Amber took pictures. So we have the evidence. Not like we don't have sense of humor over it. It is all OK.

Kelsea got into a cooking thing today. She wanted to make dessert so she made pumpkin pie, then she made pudding and then jell-o with fruit in it. Then Lee Joe decided to make and apple pie but he didn't put a top on it so it looks kind of strange. So Kelsea said we are getting a warm-up for Thanksgiving. She says we need to get our stomaches ready for all the good food. I think I am just going to get fat ahead of time. I need to ride my stationary bike a bunch I guess. Then this evening Kelsea got into one of her moods-a really super hyper mood. She was trying to scare the the cat with a rolled up poster. Then she tried to scare me and Hannah and then she was yelling at Amber and running after the dog with it. Then she walked down stairs with it and said "Fee Fie Foe Fum, I smell the butt of an English gun." That was funny. We asked her if that is what she thought it really was and she said she didn't know. She said she always thought the princess and the pea had to do with the other kind of pee. That always bewildered her. So she continued by bugging Amber while she was talking to the boy who likes Amber on Facebook. Kelsea took over their IM session. Kelsea kept telling him over and over she farted. He would try to get Amber back on and she went on and on. Then Amber had to help him feel better after that. I drug Kelsea into her room and put her in her bed 3 times before she finally stayed. She is getting heavy. The 3rd time she plopped on the floor with her feet in the air wanting me to drag her there. Silly kid. She just LOVES any kind of attention. So now there is peace and quiet and I have my computer back.

So this has nothing to do with our weekend. But we got two of the DTV converter boxes. I got two of the coupons in the mail. Tv watching is clearer with it. We have 4 PBS channels now and another CW channel. More options! Until there is a problem with reception then it is like a DVD with a problem. The picture turns in to squares all over. Lee Joe keeps yelling about how much he doesn't like it even though we can see several channels clearer. The big frustration is the need for another remote. You need the TV remote to to turn the TV on and off and change the volume and the DTV box remote for changing the channel. So now in the living room we have 4 remotes taped together now with duct tape and in our room we have 2 of them together with rubber bands. I need to hunt for a universal remote for the box I guess.

The band teacher e-mailed this to all the parents this morning. I wanted to share. What an awesome teacher he is:
What a fun night! I have never been more proud of these kids than I was Saturday night. The judging didn't turn out the way we would have liked, but the scores are NOT the goal. We pushed the kids, set the bar WAY high, and they responded with their best performance of the season. I wish you could have seen them immediately after the performance in the parking lot. So many of them had tears in their eyes. They were totally overwhelmed by what they had just accomplished. This morning we're going to talk about giving your very best, and the disappointment that sometimes follows when others don't see it the same way you do. It's a teachable moment, and we're going to continue to teach them about life through the avenue of music. Life, as you all know, is disappointing sometimes. The important thing is how you handle it. The only difference between gloating and pouting is the frown. They are both arrogant attitudes. We will not allow ourselves to gloat over other bands when we score higher than they do, and we will not pout and cry "that's not fair" when we score lower. We'll hold our heads high, congratulate the other bands, and move on. We've worked too hard to cheapen all of our efforts by being poor sports.

Getting ready----

DIII is this weekend. The last hurrah! And the band teacher thinks they are fantastic this year. So we will see what the kids can do. And hopefully we won't be TP-ed or forked the day of. But I won't count on it.

Amber's best friends ever. Otherwise known as the Quad. They look like the 4 stooges in the 2nd picture.

Holy Cow!

I like dull days at the school. I can't complain when some days I get a chance to sit and twiddle my thumbs for awhile. Needless to say this was not one of those days. Summary-Stray dog on playground, we called the humane society when we couldn't reach the owners but I had brain storm and someone from the school took the dog instead until the people came home. We had a fire drill. I had one moment during the day where the two phones in the office were occupied by someone that was not me. Then the phone rang and I had to ask the principal to answer AND then it rang again. I had to answer in the nurses office. Did I mention the fire drill-oh yeah I did. THen after school in a 20 minute time frame was-I need to call home, I need to call my mom, I can't find my kid, I need to take someone else's kid, So and so did not get on the bus, where are they, How long does someone need to stay for character academy, Someone needs money from the cash box, On the phone someone needs to know stuff about drivers ed while I have 4 kids asking to use the phone still, Someone wants to buy a book from the teachers lounge And Someone wanted 2 tacos and a large soda. That was Kelsea and her timing couldn't have been better for that request. It gave a teacher and the counselor watching me a great big laugh. I found it quite funny myself. At least the fax machine didn't call 911-that has happened when I worked there once before.

The little girls had an intense game. There were some really good kids and my girls took a beating. Autumn got a ball in the nose and Kylee had to play defense on their most aggressive player and was getting shoved and whacked all over the place. Then she got her own hand shoved into her eye and the blasted other coach just ignored her right in front of him while his team was 5 on 3 under their basket. That ticked me off. My girls were the only ones hurt and they had to stop for both of them but they shook it off and kept going. What troopers they proved to be. That was the last game of the season. They played so well.

I went to the doctor yesterday. I have chronic sinusitis in two areas of my sinuses, a deviated septum and nasal obstruction disease. I have some super expensive antibiotics I am on that were 98 dollars for generic. I go back in two weeks and see what he says to do next. I hope to be feeling better soon. That didn't happen today. I guess it hasn't been 24 hours on meds yet. I am not the worst though.

Get well Devanie

I can't get onto Devanie's blog for some reason but I hope she is eating lots of yummy soft stuff and is comfortable after her surgery.

I am finally going to see a specialist today on my stupid sinus issues. I hope to get relief and feel well for once in my life! I spent another weekend sick but Lee Joe was sick too. The sick is lurking in the corners somewhere in my house. Kylee was feeling a little yucky last night too. It can stay away. We have had the healthiest kids for almost 2 months now. No one has missed a day from illness yet. But I probably jinxed myself because I have to work tomorrow. So here is to hoping that everyone else is at least healthy tomorrow. It is Kylee and Autumn's last game against another school tomorrow.

The rest of the story

Here is the fill in on Homecoming. But I won't say too much.
Kelsea, her date and the other couple they went with did go to Chili's. There was a couple there that kept smiling at them and when the couple left the waiter came up to them and said that half of their meal was paid for. How nice was that? They went to the dance. The room where they held it at Ice world was too small for the amount of kids and it was hot. They had tickets to ice skate if they wanted. Kelsea did-naughty girl, I told her not to. But she didn't fall-good girl. She watched plenty of girls fall in their nice dresses though.

Amber and her friends went to an Italian restaurant. Then they went to the dance. She did not skate. Her dress made that really difficult. Good thing. Then they took some of the kids home that had early curfews and they went to her friends house to play games. But her date had to go home not long after they got there so she was dropped off at home. That was late enough, it was after 12:30.

The three little girls were so interested in watching their older sisters get ready. It was cute. Once Amber and Kelsea were gone I took the 3 to the mall and we had some time together. Kylee got to spend some of her birthday money and Autumn got some pants. Here is our NEWS FLASH--AUTUMN HAS GROWN!! Woo Hoo! She has been waiting for so long and Hannah is one size smaller in size until now. The bad thing is-I only found one pair of 10s in all the clothes I have. I think Kylee skipped that size. Kelsea had some really flashy pants back because they were in then, so I got rid of those and Amber blew out the right knee in every pair of pants she had in that size so I have to buy new pants!

Homecoming!

Amber started her date this morning. I didn't get all the details yet but she went on a hike with 4 couples all together. The boys brought lunch and they had a picnic. Amber came home and took her sisters to the YW thing from 1-3. She got back and ran to friends grandma's to get ready. I started on Kelsea's hair. One and half hours later we got this-

Yes, this hair style took that long. This girl has a crazy amount of hair. If it was Kylee though it would have been 2 hours long. I am kind of new at the making the fancy hair last thing. Since Amber went away to get done it was a good thing. She got home and her date was at the door about 5-10 minutes after she got back. He had to wait a few minutes. She got the Disney Princess make-up makeover. The friend's sister that works at Disneyworld did her make-up and hair. She looked good and her eye shadow matched her dress perfectly. My camera was acting very strange and was being very inconsistent with it's picture taking.

We got our boutenierre pinning lesson off of you-tube. I love the internet. So that was painless this time. Last time was awkward. I did it and I didn't know how to do it. Now we know. I also learned how to make them. I made the boys' boutenierres. I suppose there will many in the years to come.

I got a quick sister pic before they departed.

Kelsea had to wait a little longer for her date. She was ready for a little while. First time I met the boy but he sure was a cutie-I should say handsome. They were having pictures taken at friends house, going to dinner at Chilis or Applebees or Olive Garden. I think the end result was Chilis. And then going to the dance. She has a just after dance curfew.

So how fun is that? I am silly when it comes to pictures but I can't get enough of these.

just a little bit

Before this crazy weekend gets under way I am going to take a minute. We got Amber's proofs for her senior pictures back. I will have to do the pictures of pictures thing I guess. They are so nice. And they marched at the homecoming game last night. I got chills a few times when they looked and sounded so good. Their football team is undefeated. At the beginning of the 4th it was like 39-6. The final score was 39-20. It was a good game. But we got home so late. I talked with 2 moms of boys at the game. It is funny to compare the prep for a dance for each mom. I have the bigger job of course. And with 2 going as well. I need to fix something on Kelsea's dress and we have a too long issue on Amber's. I am making boutineres today for both boys at a friends house. Amber has someone that is going to help her with her hair thank goodness but I don't know what we are going with Kelsea's. Amber has friend who has a sister that I guess is good with hair. She has a job at Disneyworld dressing up as the princesses. What a cool job. She only has to work like a week a year to keep her employment active so she can come home quite a bit. I just had to throw that in because I think it is so cool. That had nothing to do with anything. I have to hunt down a full length slip for Amber. But we have everything else I think. I must go accomplish something. Loads of pictures will be coming soon.

random

Saying goodbye to the castle. We have had it a long time. Since we moved here and it has provided a great home to the spider population in the backyard for the past few years so the kids haven't played with it in forever. Until we said it was going away. We gave it to a family in our ward and when they came for it Hannah was angry and went to her room, slammed the door and fell asleep.

Bunch of rowdies. Kylee has the ball Autumn is the blue 4

Autumn with friends--------- Kylee bringing the ball down

Autumn coming up to Kylee.

More games and more busy. Kylee was the shooting maniac on Mon. She made like 5 or 6 baskets. Autumn got lot of shots off today but they were nowhere near the basket except 2 times. I was not home until about 9 on Monday. We went to the mall at the end of the day for some presents and homecoming shopping. Yesterday I was gone from 11 on running errands once I got home I was exhausted. Hannah has new glasses-her other new ones broke and we took her to the library to pay for a book she left in the rain. She gave me 1.07 of her own money to pay for it. But they said it was still readable so we didn't have to pay for it. She got her money back. She got a new coat. Today I stayed home and did laundry and watched a movie and then ran around after school on. Tomorrow night we will watch Amber and the band march during half time at the homecoming game. Now there is a week and half left of little girl games and 2 weeks left of marching band. I will be sad to see the marching season end. Amber's last time as drum major soon approaches. Homecoming is Saturday. We are still in the process of figuring things out. Hey girls it is Weds, we need to know what you are DOING WHEN. I think Kelsea is starting basketball soon but a lot of stuff is calming down so we will be fine. I will have a fulltime helper driver soon once Amber is done with band. I let Kelsea drive for the first time with me today. It doesn't matter, I will never like it. She did fine though. And we are getting ready for Halloween. Hannah finally gave up the princess with a mustache idea. She wants to be a monkey. Autumn is character from the the new tinkerbell books and Kylee is wearing a costume that was Kelsea's, a greek goddess costume. She wanted to be half drum major half orchestra person. I am glad I found a suitable diversion for that one too. Kelsea says she is going to be a cow. I guess I will go to bed and see what tomorrow brings me.

I was tagged

This took some thought for me. I am suppose to post 5 quirky things about myself. I am always quirky and odd so it is natural and hard to figure out what to pick.

1. I like toys. Having girls just feeds this quirk to the hilt. Yes, my kids have lots of toys. I am just as guilty going through the toy aisle with my kids saying how cute things are. And sometimes those things do not stay in the store. I still have a Rubbermaid container that has some of my dolls and stuffed animals when I was little. And my kids do not get to play with those. I just wish, in my house, the toys would get cleaned up though. I am the worst at getting rid of stuff. Toy Story was almost like my little world when I was little. That movie didn't help getting rid of anything any easier. I have a crazy vivid imagination.

2. I like color in my house and I think I could possibly be addicted to painting. Not the fumes, just the results. I have painted several rooms or walls in my house around 3 times in the past 9 years. But I think I am content now with many of my color choices. I get excited when we are going to change rooms because that might mean new colors. I am contemplating a color change on my kitchen walls and in my upstairs bathroom again. I should probably finish the kitchen and the trim first though.

3. I like really super soft things like blankets. I have blankets all over the house. I REALLY like those REALLY super soft fleece blankets. All my kids have one, maybe 2. When I touch them in the store they cause an instant super relaxation response in me. Probably all the kids would have to do if I scream at them is to throw one of those super soft blankets on me and I would probably turn into a puddle on the floor. SHH don't tell them or they will take advantage of me. When the blanket is not super soft anymore I have to go get a new one. I bought two coats because they had that super soft lining in them. I like my new bedspread because it is like a sort of suede feel but softer and boy can I relax on that. Kind of silly huh?

4. This a peeve and something quirky. Little kids that have dirty ears drive me nuts. You can see a lot of those when you work at a school. I know you are not suppose to use q-tips according to DR. OZ but I just want to attack kids with dirty ears with one. But I don't. When I am in the nurses office and have access to them I still don't but don't look at me too closely I could be eyeballing those q-tips while I am there and think "I could..."

5. If I could change this one I would but I think this might be a curse. Cars like to break down on me. I don't know what I ever did to insult cars but the older they are, the more they break. Lately you have heard about my left blinker, tempermental head lights and right now the car won't pass emission testing because of the check engine light. My first car lost it's timing chain. I bought another car to fix my first car and the clutch went out. I got the engine in my car and then it was never the same again. I didn't have a heater in the middle of winter. The next car we bought for me would stall out all over town. That happened all the time until we figured out what was wrong(a ridiculous gas cap issue) then we went through battery, starter, alternator, battery starter alternator. Then when I borrowed my mom's car while my car was broken something happened the suspension came apart by one of the wheels. I touched Darren and Carrie's window while we were fixing our car that had another stupid problem and their window wouldn't roll up after that. I was really feeling cursed at that point. Our other van had issues with the power steering pump and I don't remember how it broke down this one day on the freeway but that was the "I had it" day where I bought me a cell phone. This van I have now has been nicer to me, oh wait, the battery died on my trip to Connecticut the first week I had it and the transmission blew up on the way home from another. I guess I will take stupid on again off again blinkers over some of the other stuff.

Now you know more than I wanted you to know about me.

Consider yourself tagged if you haven't done this yet since half my readers, or at least linked bloggers already have.

In Pictures

Lee Joe got all ambitious today. He made chili. Great day for that and the girls harvested apples from our apple tree and he also decided the girls should make apple pies. And they did.

Yesterday Oct 10 was the earliest recorded snow fall on record. The biggest snow flakes ever fell for hours. There was a little more snow on the ground than that and trees were sagging from the weight of their leaves and snow.


The finished product. We didn't pick any of the fabrics. It is a humanitarian quilt but I am partial to blue.

The stuff that has been floating around my living room too long. The quilt in progress.



My birthday
They thought it would be fun to light the cake and cheesecake on fire.

My mom sent me these flowers they are still alive!



Some of Lee Joe's flowers he gave me