Tainted Record

After 16 years of driving (back in the day, we got our drivers permit at age 14 in western Kansas. I don't know if they still do that. I think it was to allow drivers to help with farm work and transportation in rural areas.) my turn came. A policeman turned on his lights behind ME! I know...I had to double check myself! ME! I've never been pulled over in my life! I never go more than 5 over. I've never been in so much as a fender bender. My record is tainted. Tarnished. No longer spotless.

I had a Relief Society meeting last night at the church. On my way home I decided to stop at Kohl's. They were having some good sales on polo shirts for little boys. Only $1.60! 90% off! You might want to check your local Kohl's. But anyway...back to the story. On my way out of the parking lot I got onto the main road and started picking up speed. When I had reached 40 mph the lights came on. What?! The speed limit is 45. I pulled over and the policeman came over and asked for my license and registration. I asked what I did and he said, "I'm not going to tell you until I see your license and registration." Gee whiz! Grumpy! So I fumbled around and dug deep in the pocket console and found the needed documents and with shaking hands passed it over. Why was I shaking? I don't know. Reaction to getting in trouble. I've never been a trouble maker and really am not used to getting busted! Especially in the last few years! Ha! Once he had the "stuff" he then told me that I didn't have a light on my license plate. Oh! Is that all? The crazy thing about that is that you never know it's out unless someone actually tells you! Are you supposed to walk around your car at night with all the lights on and have someone turn on all the signals, press the brakes, reverse, etc? Maybe your car has a warning light for when your license plate light goes out. Mine sure doesn't! So anyway, he then asked, "When was your last ticket?" I said, "Never. This is the first time I've ever been pulled over in my entire life!" He then smiled and said, "Oh, well sorry about that!" He then proceeded to tell me he would just give me a warning this time. That's wonderful! Thanks! I know Tory hasn't been so lucky before. He got a ticket for having one brake light out. Geesh! The policeman even gave me some helpful hints about how to change the bulb. For instance...did you know you shouldn't touch the bulb when you're replacing it? Supposedly touching the bulb shortens its life dramatically. OK. So somehow we'll figure out a way to plug it in without touching it. Thanks for the info Mr. Policeman! So there you go...I guess since he didn't give me a ticket I don't REALLY have a tainted record but I can't say I've never been pulled over now. Shoot! Oh well! It was a good run for 16 years.....

Hello! My Name is...

Austin! Every month Austin's class has a family project to work on. This month was the first project. He was sent home with a roll of paper and instructions to make a full-size picture of himself. He could use any materials that he wanted. It was pretty fun! We all had a blast and got to help a little. We were supposed to do 20% and Austin 80%. He did such a good job cutting and gluing and tracing! I was impressed! When it came time for the mouth we thought and thought about what we could do. I suggested we get out some old magazines and cut one out. When Austin spied this mouth he HAD to have it! He about died laughing! And when I went to take his picture with the little man...he had to pose with his mouth open just like "Paper Austin". Pretty funny!

100th Post

Well, technically my last post was my 100th. Blast! I've been watching and paying such close attention as it's gotten closer and I missed it by one! Oh well! At any rate...I have reached my 100th post! Hurrah! This blog has provided lots of fun and enjoyment for me and hopefully a way to connect and stay connected with friends and family. I have met people I otherwise would not have and I've been able to journal and make a record of our lives that will last so my family can read it in years to come and remember the good times we had. And maybe most importantly, it has encouraged me to think of my life in new and exciting ways. Happy 100th Post-iversary!

Good News to Report

Tory had an appointment with the eye specialist yesterday morning. He did lots of testing and took pictures of his retina and all looks good...well it WILL look good. He had signs and symptoms of retinal detachment but it looks like it's all back to normal. He does have some damage to the iris but that should heal over time. We are so glad and feel so relieved.

As of today he still can't open his eye! I can't believe it! He can open it maybe a quarter of the way open when he really tries. But other than those times it is just closed. It still hurts him to focus on anything. When he tries to focus with his "good" eye his "bad" eye screams in pain. That iris just doesn't want to move around yet.

Today was his first day back at school. He found a guy who is in a lower trimester that lives out here and called him to give him a ride to school this morning. Otherwise I would have had to take him and wake up all the boys and leave by 6:15 am! Sooooo glad that other guy was willing to make a stop! I did have to pick him up this afternoon. He can't even go to clinic because he can't drive there! That's not good! It was a hard day for him. All the comments alone were a little tiring but then in his classes he had a hard time looking at the presentations and taking notes for hours on end. By the end of the day his good eye was so tired he couldn't even get it to focus! He had to ask the instructor if he could sit it out for awhile. Poor guy! He came home, took some Advil, and is now sound asleep. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little better for him.

Welcome Autumn

Today is the first day of fall. Isn't fall the most amazing season? I have to admit I really love spring with all of the new life and bright colors. But there's something really cozy about fall. It's one of my most favorite seasons of all. I love the cool crisp days, the beautiful colors, and all of the smells that go with it...vanilla, cinnamon, pumpkin, ginger, hazelnut, and fireplaces burning. That's one of the things I miss the most living down here in Texas...the change of the seasons. We are still hot here, in the 90s, and have to run our AC 24/7. I look forward to the days when we can at least open the windows! I know it won't really cool down for a couple months but I'm just going to have to pretend the world outside looks just like these pictures which, to me, look just like fall should look! And when I really feel like walking through the leaves...well, I guess I'll just have to walk through the silk leaves aisles at Michael's, JoAnn's, or Hobby Lobby! Sad isn't it? So all of you up north...please take a walk in the cool crisp air for me. Kick through the leaves and breathe deeply for me! And if you aren't quite ready for fall and feel like going for a swim...well, just let me know and I'll make it happen for YOU!

Our Day in the ER

Today started out normal. We slept in a little later, had a good waffle and OJ breakfast, and then I went to go get ready to hit the community garage sale in our neighborhood. While I was getting ready, Tory and the boys went out to the garage to help a friend, Glen, fix his mailbox. At about 9:30 I was drying my hair when I heard someone shouting my name. It didn't sound like Tory. I peaked out of the bathroom and it was Glen. He told me to come quick there had been an accident. OK, I don't even have to tell you how many things went running through my head. Since they were working with tools and saws I thought someone cut off something or maybe it was one of the boys. Maybe they had gotten into the street with all of the garage sale traffic and been hit by a car. All I knew was someone was hurt. I ran out of our room and saw Tory standing there with one eye completely swollen shut and blood everywhere and he said he couldn't see out of it even when it was open. I don't know much but I know I panicked. Someone asked for a wet washcloth and I couldn't even think where a washcloth would be in my own organized towel drawer in my kitchen! Out of it! I didn't know what to do. All I knew was that I wanted Tory to have a blessing immediately. I called around to three people and no one was home on a Saturday morning. We finally got someone to come over. They gave Tory a blessing and then Glen took Tory to the emergency room and the second friend, Jason, volunteered his family to watch our three boys at his home and waited for me to pack up the boys so I could follow him. I got the boys all settled and then headed to the ER 30 minutes away. Before I get to the ER, let me back up and tell you how it happened...

Tory was cutting some wood on the table saw in the garage. He is always VERY careful. He always makes sure he pushes the cut off piece of wood off the table so it doesn't hit the blade and shoot up and hit him in the eye. Well he went to push the cut piece off but instead of falling off the table the wood bounced up and hit the blade...and hit him in the eye. Luckily it looks like he had his eye closed and turned his head just right to where the wood glanced off right under his eye and then hit him in the side of the head right above his ear. He has a huge gash under his eye and a goose egg on the side of his head.

So back to the ER. Tory and Glen met up with Glen's wife, Mary, who is a nurse. They got to the ER around 10:30. They helped him get settled and then I came about 20 minutes later. Three ambulances pulled in at the same time as us so we had a long wait. Tory was in major shock throwing up and shaking so hard. And he was in the worst pain of his life he said. No one would give him any medication for it until the Dr. saw him. The doctor came in and asked him a few questions and briefly checked him out and that's all we heard of him for 3 hours. All this time Tory is in severe pain and shaking so hard. Glen finally found some blankets for him and that helped. Finally the doctor came in and checked him out more thoroughly. He couldn't tell a lot because the eye was so swollen. But it looks like he damaged his iris. He's also not sure about the shape of Tory's pupil. It looks slightly egg-shaped, which is not good. But it's so slight that it might just be his iris that is damaged. He did whatever tests he could and tried and tried to get an opthamologist in to check but none would come and none were available. He stitched Tory up with at least 8 stitches and did such a good job. (He was even commenting on how good it looked and wanted us to come check it out! How funny! He says he does a much better job than a cosmetic surgeon even.) I REALLY liked the doctor. I would have him as my doctor ANY day. I was so impressed with the time he took (when he finally GOT to us that is) and how careful he was and all of the extra things he did trying to get a specialist in. So THEN they finally gave Tory some pain medication with major nausea as a side effect. It was a shot. I asked the nurse what it was and I don't even remember it. I had never heard of it. (Not that I'm a big pain medication user but I have had three major surgeries myself...) It was supposed to be 4 x stronger than morphine and had 4 opiates in it. Whoa! Tory spoke up and told her he was very sensitive to medications so she decided to give him half the dose. And then she added, "And since it's only half a dose I can give it to you in your arm." I asked where the full dose would have gone. She said in his behind. He was VERY glad he was getting the half dose! Which turned out to be plenty for him! After they gave it to him he had to wait 20 min before he could leave. As soon as they discharged him he started throwing up out of control! All the way home. Luckily there was nothing left but it still really killed his head! He was white as a sheet. No lips whatsoever. Poor Tory!

So we hobbled out at about 3:30 with instructions on how to keep it clean and when to apply drops. He will have to call an eye doctor on Monday to get it checked out. I just hope that's not too long to wait! He's been getting more vision back so that's a good sign. The swelling seems to be going down a bit now. He's lucky he doesn't bruise easily. It's hardly even discolored! If it were me it probably would have been seriously black with maybe a tinge of blue! He's just been resting this afternoon and waiting for that medication to wear off so he could eat something! He's been taking ibuprofen this evening and he says it is working better than the heavy duty stuff did. I dropped him off at home, got him settled, and picked up the boys. They were very happy and were good boys while we were gone. What a relief. I didn't know how Coen was going to be because he hasn't ever really been to anyone else's house for babysitting before. He did great, took a 2 1/2 hour nap, never cried, and was just giving Bonnie, the mom, loves and hugs even when I was there! So glad that worked out! I always worry about my little men when they're not with me you know.

So it's been quite the day. Not what we planned when we woke up. The garage sales were all put away when we rolled back into the drive but at least Tory will be OK. It's really a miracle that he has his eye and that he can see out of it. I feel blessed that we were able to have friends here to help us and that everything went smoothly which took some of the stress out of the situation. I will rest a little more easy once he sees an eye doctor to determine the extent of damage, if any, to his eye itself. It's just so red and that pupil shape kind of worries me. Hopefully tomorrow the swelling will be down so he can open his eye and see if his vision is back to normal. He still can't open it at all even tonight! It was a scary day! I am thankful for Tory and that he is OK. And I'm thankful for friends who are willing to drop everything for us and stay in the ER for 4 hours and watch our children and work them into their busy schedule for 5 + hours. Life is good!

Thursday 13 - Games

Tory and I love to play games. So do the boys. In fact, we love games so much that we have incorporated them into our Christmas Eve traditions. Tory's family always opened a gift on Christmas Eve but mine didn't. I didn't want to just "do away" with HIS traditions but I didn't want everyone to open their own present. That wouldn't leave much for Christmas Day! So we compromised. We decided we'd open ONE gift as a family and it had to be something we would enjoy together. And that is how the "Christmas Eve Game" tradition was born. Not only do we get to open a present...we also get a fun activity to do that evening! We also tend to give games as birthday presents, too. And some friends of ours just cleaned out their game closet and gave them to us! So needless to say, we have quite a game collection going. It pretty much takes up our entire hall closet! (But hey! We don't really need a COAT closet in TEXAS! We only use them a couple months a year!) So today I thought I'd post some of my favorite games. They are in no particular order and most of them are "grown-up" games (although I do enjoy some of the kids games, too!)

1. Cranium - SUCH a fun game! When we lived in Colorado we had friends, Chris and Kristin, that we'd play this with, seriously, almost every weekend! We played it so much we had to get the expansion pack! We had the best time! Unfortunately it is a 4 or more person game so we don't get to play it as often and we've never found friends that enjoy playing it with us THAT often...bummer!

2. Settlers of Catan - I absolutely LOVE this game! This is another one you have to have at least 3 or 4 players on so we can only play it with friends and for some reason no one ever wants to play! Too bad! It is so fun! (And I ALWAYS win! Heh, heh!) I even have the computer version of this game. That way I don't have to go through withdrawals!

3. Skip-bo - I love this game for two reasons: 1) It is really pretty fun and a quick game and 2) sentimental reasons. Ever since my brothers and sisters and I were younger we'd go over to Grangran's house in Leoti, KS and play Skip-bo with her and all of her little old lady friends. At least once a month. Probably more if you count each of our visits individually! It was the best fun playing with all those ladies with their little goodies and funny comments. Even Tory got introduced to the game by Grangran and the ladies! I miss those fun times but every time we play I can remember them.

4. Phase 10 - Another fun card game. "How many do we deal?" That's my famous question. Tory always laughs at me and says, "What's the name of the game?" I think I've finally got it. You deal 10!

5. Sequence - This one is our latest addiction. This was our Christmas Eve game last year. Wow! It's pretty fun! And once again...I ALWAYS win!


6. Battleship - A good classic that Tory and I love to play. It can get pretty competitive. I have to say I do win a lot! (Notice the games I win the most I like the most!)


7. Clue - Another classic. One of those games you forget how much fun it is until you break it out and play. It's all about the notes...


8. Split - Way fun card game. We play this one a lot with our friends, James and Rachael, here. Unfortunately they are moving at the end of this month and taking their game with them! I've looked everywhere! Do they not sell it in TX? We also play this one when we visit Tory's parents. Pretty fun!

9. Hand & Foot - Another card game James and Rachael taught us. There are a lot of different rules out there on the Internet. We have kind of taken their rules and rules we've found that WE like and combined them into the perfect game. VERY fun! Takes a little longer to play but so worth it!

10. Pooh-Head - I know...silly name. Probably has a different name in the "real" world. But I learned this on my mission. We would play it sometimes on p-days. It's a really fun card game as well. Very fast game.

11. Rummikub - I love this one! Something different to play when you don't feel like cards.


12. Probe - This is an older game. I don't even know if they make it anymore. There are probably different versions of it at least. Basically you have a tray in front of you and you spell a word you think would be difficult for everyone else to guess with little cards with letters on them. They are turned upside down and you take turns guessing letters on other player's word strip. Pretty interesting to see what words everyone picks! Definitely a game to look for...maybe eBay would have it?

13. Wow! Am I at 13 already? There's no way I can list every game I love! Let's see...UNO, Scrabble, Othello (however, I'd probably like this one MORE if I wasn't playing Tory. He always wins. I don't stand a chance.) 10,000 (I think that's what it's called. You play it with just 5 dice that's it. Fun.), Pit, etc, etc. I also really enjoy a good puzzle if those count as games!

What games do you enjoy playing? Any recommendations for us?

The New Reveal

OK I know I'm a little "post" happy today (what is this-my third one?) but I finally have pictures of my new kitchen all painted so I thought I'd share. Keep in mind, we haven't fully decorated it the way we want-some things are temporary, we need to make curtains, some of the pictures aren't hung, etc. But you get the idea. If I waited until it was COMPLETELY finished then it would be a long time before you saw pictures! I have to live with it for awhile before I can finish it. We added the beadboard and Tory MADE all the trim by hand (and of course the corner shelves and rectangular shelves). It was quite the project! So anyway...are you ready? OK! Here you go!

Sorry this one is a little dark but it's the best full-shot I could get from the family room.

La Cucaracha

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!Make sure you scroll down to the bottom of my blog and turn off my music before you start the show! Enjoy! Too funny!

Coen's Frog

This frog painting is my latest endeavor. I did it in watercolors. I haven't really painted much in watercolors since high school so this was kind of fun. (Yes, the lines are supposed to look wiggly and crooked. I wanted a "sketched" look for it.) I want to do another one with a turtle picture. I am decorating Coen's room in blue and green with frogs and turtles. It was all inspired by this awesome fabric I found at JoAnn's during this great sale. Tory actually made the curtains for me. (I'm telling you...he's awesome!) I buy the fabric and he sews it up for me! What a deal! He made the valance as well as the two cream colored panels. Of course we are going to be painting his room one of these days.

Singing Cows

For Family Home Evening tonight we had TONS of fun! First of all we all sang our hearts out to some good karaoke songs! It was a blast! The boys really loved it. Guess that's where all our music listening comes in handy! It was so much fun. You're probably glad you weren't in the living room listening...but we didn't have a problem with the many pitches and tones being thrown around! After lots of singing we somehow got on a "moo-ing" kick. Before long we had all five of us moo-ing...Coen included. He's the cutest little moo-er you ever saw! His little mouth goes into a perfect Cheerio circle when he moos. Cracks me up! So from singing to moo-ing...guess you could call us singing cows?! LOL

Thursday 13 - Places I've Lived

I was just thinking about some of the places I've lived in my life and decided there have been quite a few. So I am going to do my Thursday 13 on the places I've lived. I don't know for sure how many so I'll see as I go! I'm going to try to list them in order. Here goes:

1. Provo, Utah: I have lived here on several occasions actually. First of all I was born here and lived here while my Dad went to BYU. I then went to 3 years of college here at BYU. I returned for about 10 weeks to go the the MTC (Missionary Training Center) before my mission. Two years later I moved back the semester before Tory and I were married and then we lived 6 more months here while I finished my Health Science: Community Health degree. So yes...Provo and I have some history.

2. Evanston, Wyoming: When I was a newborn baby and my sister was 2, my Dad worked as a lumberjack for the summer here. We lived in a small trailer without any running water! My Mom was a very brave soul! I cannot even imagine!

3. Seattle, Washington: This is where my Dad went to dental school. I was not even 5 when we moved away so I don't remember a lot of it. But I do remember lots of rain and lots of fruits and berries!

4. Tribune, Kansas: This is where we moved right after Dad graduated from dental school! I lived here until I was 18! My family moved the summer after I graduated from high school. Tribune is the place I consider to be my "hometown". So many fond memories here! In fact almost every single childhood memory!

5. Black Forest, Colorado: Or Colorado Springs basically. This is where my family moved after I graduated from high school. They moved here and I moved to Provo for college. So the only time I really got to live here was during the summers and holidays. But what a beautiful place! Coming from Kansas to the Black Forest was quite the change! From flat wheat fields to Pikes Peak and the Rocky Mountains. And where we lived was literally in the forest. Trees everywhere!

6. Calais, France: I served a mission for my church in the Belgium Brussels Mission for 18 months. This was my first city! It was beautiful! Right by the ocean. We saw many a ferry boat going back and forth between Calais and Dover, England. In fact this is where the Euro Tunnel is. (The tunnel under the ocean that connects England and France.) I lived here for 5 months. Lots of memories here. This is where I learned my french, was introduced to french pastries and city buses and missionary work in general!

7. Nancy, France: This was my second area on my mission. Talk about a gorgeous place! Ahhh! The parcs! There was a parc off the main square (Place Stanislas) called Parc de la PÉPINIÈRE. It even had a zoo in it that you could just walk through! Bears, monkeys, the works! Even peacocks walking around everywhere...and flying everywhere! For someone who is a little...let's say...scared of birds, this is a frightening thing! Those things are HUGE! Their tails hit you in the head and you're just glad that's ALL that hit you in the head! I was here in the Spring and it was such a joy to walk everywhere! Unfortunately I was only here for one month. I would love to go back and explore a little bit more!

8. Charleroi, Belgium: This was my third area. I was here for 9 months! It is a coal mining city. It seemed to be the least desirable place to go in the mission but after 9 months you can grow to love any place and I LOVE Charleroi! In that amount of time I was able to find a lot of the nooks and crannies some might have missed. Some of us missionaries exercised every other morning in a parc with a castle (Bois du Cazier)! It had an exercise course in the woods with stations to do different exercises. Soooo cool! I was able to see many museums and I'm sure I've ridden on every train, tram, and bus line in the area and seen some beautiful areas in the meantime! Not to mention our main mode of transportation...walking! I was soooo sad to leave!

9. Lille, France: Back to France I went for my last month of my mission. Yes, another one monther. This was a hard one for me because I knew how much time I'd have. It was hard to get to know the area. Which is very unfortunate. Lille is a very large city and very beautiful and I would have loved to be able to see more of it! But we tried to see as much as we could on our p-days. Lovely Lille! I can't wait to go back and check it out more some day!

10. Monument, Colorado: After I returned home from my mission, married Tory, and graduated from BYU, we moved back to Black Forest for about a year and a half where we lived in a little cottage behind my parent's house. This is where Austin was born. We then moved to town, Monument, where we lived for another year and a half or so. This is where we lived when Dallin was born. Monument is just a few miles north of Colorado Springs. Tory went to school here in Colorado Springs at Pikes Peak Community College. We love the Colorado Springs area. It's such a beautiful place with so many fun things to do.

11. Irving, Texas: After Tory's first three and a half years of college we moved to Irving so he could finish his last few classes here at Parker College of Chiropractic. They have some accelerated classes offered to undergrads. (If only we had known earlier...do you have any idea how much further along we'd be? But why look back?) Anyway, Irving was...OK. We lived in our apartment for one year exactly. It was miserable. I just didn't feel safe. And our AC didn't work right (very important in hot TX!) so if we turned it on it wouldn't cool half the apartment and cost over $200 a month to run! So basically we could just shut it off and be just as "cool" and live a lot cheaper! The rent was outrageous! And the company...disturbing. Cockroaches everywhere! My worst nightmare! Big giant Texas sized ones! I had to get out of there! We finally decided to buy a house and save hundreds of dollars a month in rent!

12. Homeless: For one month of my life I actually didn't have a home. We had a heck of a time closing on our home. One thing after another. If it COULD happen it DID happen. We arrived with our moving truck ready to close and they informed us THEN that things weren't ready. So we tried to get a motel. No room in the Inn! It was right when Hurricane Katrina hit and everyone ELSE was trying to find a room in Dallas! They wouldn't let us stay unless we were a homeless hurricane victim! We fit everything in that category except "hurricane". One place finally let us stay ONE NIGHT ONLY. Fortunately, Tory's friend Scot, from school, let us have a room at his house in Flowermound, TX to camp out in. We thought it would only be a day or two. No. It was exactly a month. And we had exactly two pairs of clothes each to wear. And we only had one car and Tory drove it to school every day. So I was stuck in a strange house all alone with two little boys and not a thing to do but camp out in our "room" with a tiny little TV. Those were some VERY long days. We pushed two twin beds together for our whole family and had to sleep like that for a MONTH! Longest month of my life. Maybe if I had known in advance that it would be that long it would have been better but every single day they gave us false hope. Torture! I even found out I was 5 weeks pregnant with Coen while there. I am just grateful we got out before the morning sickness hit! It was not a pleasant time. Probably the worst time of my life! To this day I cannot watch Dora or even hear her voice without waves of depression hitting me. It's a long story. I'm glad it's over. The one positive thing that came out of it...we know the next time we buy a house it WILL go smoother. It HAS to! But anyway...

13. Keller, Texas: Our current location. We love it here! We have been living in our house for two years this October! Not only do we love our house...we love Keller. It's such a great place. Close to Dallas and Fort Worth yet not in the big city, lots of fun shopping and parks galore! It's really growing on us. If we could just scoot Texas a little closer to all of our families, we'd probably just stay here! This is a picture of the park the boys and I go to at least 3 times a week to exercise.

So there you have it! Thirteen places I have lived. I've really loved every location (except being homeless but that's not really a location now is it?) and the experiences I've had in each place. I wonder where we'll go next? Your guess is as good as ours right now! Too many options! Too many places I'd like to go back to and others I'd like to try out in the first place! A lot of people on my mission always commented on how much Americans move! I'd never really considered it before but I guess we do. And I know I haven't moved nearly as much as a lot of other people have! But it's kind of nice, don't you think? To be able to move around in a country that has so many different scenic views and landscapes is awesome! I sometimes wish I could try out a little corner in each area! But then I remember packing........

Where have YOU lived? Tell me!

They're Ba-ack!

Yes, our fine feathered friends are back. After our last visitor and her subsequent death, we removed the empty hanging basket and vowed never to hang another. Well, I just couldn't bear to see a perfectly good hook going to waste on my front porch. So I opted for a pre-filled basket of flowers. They bloomed and blossomed fantastically. Nice purple flowers for most of the summer. And then when summer was at its hottest, I forgot to water them for two days in a row. Enough time to let them dry out a little and apparently make them the perfect nesting grounds...again. Oh, boy. What was I to do? I couldn't very well WATER the birds! So alas...my lovely purple flowers died completely leaving a very unattractive hanging basket with a dead plant in it.

A few nights ago, Tory was trying to get rid of yet ANOTHER massive spider web across our lawn. (What is it with our front lawn? Is it a wildlife refuge?!) He had some spray going on in one hand and the power hose in another. In all the excitement, the mama bird got some spray, started charging (is that the word? Do birds charge?!) at Tory, who happened to hit it (purely by accident...he is not a violent person!) and off it went. While it was gone Tory decided to check out the nest to see if there were really eggs or babies or anything at all in it. This is what he found. One egg and one new baby. He felt so bad for the mama bird! About every hour he went out and checked to see if she had returned. The next morning the first thing he did was check and still no mama. When we came home from church, there she was. He was very relieved! We've never seen her leave for that long! But she WAS pretty upset! We are...happy...to report (mixed emotions really) that she has never left her post since and seems to be fine. We did get a chance to at least trim the dead plant away from the pot so now it just looks like a neglected pot instead of a neglected plant. Geesh! What sacrifice for these fowl creatures! (heh, heh)

Pillowcase Project

Our little project this afternoon was making Halloween pillowcases. Not that we do a project every afternoon by any means. The boys picked out some Halloween fabric they wanted a few weeks ago and have been dying to make them ever since! So today I broke down and did it. (And I needed a good excuse to get the sewing machine out anyway. I've got a stack of shorts and pants I've got to take up the waistbands on for these skinny little boys of mine!) A little early for Halloween but that's OK. You have to do something to make it feel Fall-ish around here! They were so easy. My Grandma Mac, GG Ma as she is now called to her 18 or so great grandchildren, has made them Christmas, patriotic, and some just fun animal ones. So since we are such a Halloween-lovin' family I thought it would be fun to make some Halloween ones. And besides...who can pass up that cute material? And they were so quick and easy to make! And now I have two very happy little boys who I'm sure will take VERY good naps this afternoon AND go to bed happily this evening!

Sneak Peak!!

Here's a little sneak peak of my new kitchen color! More pictures to come. I haven't put up any of my decorations yet and we're still working on the second color of paint. Unfortunately Tory had to start back to school today. Where did the break go?! So we will have to work on it in the evenings. We want to get it finished as soon as possible because soon even the evenings will be taken up. Tory has to put in some serious time at the clinic this trimester! So anyway...before school this morning, Tory whipped these corner shelves up for me! I was busy snoozing. When I woke up and saw them I was soooooo excited! I love them! Of course they still need to be painted but don't they look awesome?! He even put the decorations up and hung the pictures himself. I think it looks great...candles, plants, decorative items...lovely! I got the iron work at Hobby Lobby (where else?!) awhile ago during a 50% off sale. $1.50 each! What a deal! I knew I wanted to incorporate them into my kitchen somehow, someway so I bought them. Just couldn't resist. So enjoy the sneak peak and hopefully I'll have more pictures soon!

Check this out...

Have you tried this yet?



They've got some fun letter possibilites. Don't know what else you'd use them for...but they look cool!