Halloween

Well, even with a couple of setbacks, we've had a wonderful Halloween together as a family. I love my little world so much! It truly is a good life.

Hazel really wanted to be a ghost. I thought that she turned out pretty darn cute (and scary!). She loved it!

My little bat girl! What is going on with my girls? Bats? Ghosts? Silly ladies! Isn't her mask adorable and hilarious!? I love her!

Our little chickie! Such a cute little bird ~ she LOVED the suckers!

GGgggrrrr! She makes me laugh so hard!

I just loved this 5 o'clock shadow thing going on! :)

What lovely eyes she has!

Wow! We have had a week FULL of candy. Wednesday we went to our local "Boo At The Zoo" with some friends, Thursday Melaleuca had their annual big Halloween bash where all the departments go ALL OUT decorating and dressing up, and of course Trick-or-Treating tonight. My children have been on an enormous sugar high for days. Nels and I have definitely had some time to rethink how Halloween will play out in future years. 

Yesterday Elsie woke up from a four HOUR nap (!!!!) with a fever and Hazel started complaining about her neck hurting. Today we got to make two different trips to the doctor completing a CBC, urinalysis (via catheter), and two doctor work overs. Lovely. We've found nothing conclusive - but Elsie is still burning up and Hazel has a hideous cough.

My poor girls have been miserable all day, but the wonders of Ibuprofen allowed us to have a lot of fun spooking our way down the street and back. We came home right as it started to rain, ate some wonderful chicken and rice soup, and curled up together and watched "Goonies". This is also probably one of the first times in my life that I have been the innocent bystander observing real-life sugar insanity. Lilie turned into a crazy little maniac, running around and around laughing and squealing. SO funny and entertaining! 

With the exception of our little spazoid, it was a very calm, comfortable night spent together with lots of love. It was a perfect Halloween!

Halloween's Fabulous Five

1. It's Halloween and after 3 days of massive sugar highs, the day is over and the candy is getting put away - possibly in the garbage. :)

2. My upstairs tub is leaking. :) Leaving a wet spot on the basement carpet as well as leaking between the downstairs wall below it. --- What? I know you're asking - "And you think this is fabulous?" Yes. And let me tell you why. Because of this problem, Nels and I pulled out the little door thingy in the back of the girls' closet, where we have access to the tub above it. As we were determining where exactly the leak was coming from, we decided to take the handles off the tub and see if we could at least get the tub faucet to temporarily stop leaking (which it has been doing quite ferociously for about 3 weeks (or more). While doing this, our 40+ year old cold water knob, broke off! (gasp!) SO . . .  :) now we get to tackle the project that we have been putting off for the past year and a half and I am going to get new tile and fixtures in my upstairs bath tub. :) See! Fabulous! :)

3. My brain has been working overtime for the past week, thinking of new decorating ideas. It's been really fun and I decided to spontaneously take on an art project. I'm embroidering some birds to hang above my bed and they are turning out surprisingly well. I'm so proud of myself and I'll be sure to post some pictures when I finish. You will love them! :) I've realized that aside from crocheting an afghan for a friend's upcoming baby, I haven't done any real "art projects" in a REALLY REALLY REALLLLLLYYYY long time. Last weekend I had a chance to look through some old memorabilia and remembered that I am (or at least once was) quite creative and artistic. Now, I've painted rooms in my house and had other little projects, but really doing anything that is expressive hasn't happened in years and years. You know, the kind of thing that you make just to make it. Not necessarily something functional, just art. I'm excited and think that I'm going to try to keep doing this kind of thing on a regular basis. 

As I've been taking this stroll through the long-forgotten creative side of my brain, I also stumbled upon a picture of my perfect kitchen. It makes me feel so happy just to look at it! :)

Don't you just LOVE all of the turquoise??? So beautiful! I love the countertop, the knobs, and the glass. {sigh} I'm in love!

I've also learned that I have a very vintage style. I love the look of old and eclectic. Sometimes with bright and funky pieces. I think, if given the option, I wouldn't choose to buy a lot of things for my home brand new. If I had all the money (and time) I desired, I would browse endlessly through second-hand, rummage, antique stores to find just the right old, perfect, well-constructed piece and refinish it.

4. The girls' costumes turned out SO CUTE! They made the cutest little bat and ghost and chicken in the entire world! We had such a wonderful time together tonight. A truly fabulous night! And it wasn't freezing cold! - That is truly an amazing thing for Idaho Falls!

5. Daylight savings ends on Sunday! An extra hour at night AND in the morning! It's like Christmas for me! :) - Hopefully (as I hope every year) I will use this wonderful time change to my advantage and go to sleep "an hour earlier" and wake up "an hour earlier". Here's to goals, right!? :)

Fridays (Sunday morning) Fabulous Five

Okay, I totally forgot about this Friday night - again - so I'm posting now! 

1. Nels got an extra day off this week! (Okay, after putting in about 13 hours of overtime one day. But HEY! We'll take it where we can get it!)

2. I got to mow my new sod for the first (and probably the last of the season) time today and it looks (mostly) fabulous! :) 

3. I got our food storage put away and I'm slowly working my way through organizing my laundry room. Not quite there yet, but we're on our way. 

4. It was beautiful outside today! Seriously gorgeous! We got the majority of our yard cleaned up and ready for winter. Oh, happy day! 

5. Elsie has started saying Mama. It is the cutest thing in the entire world. I know that she's not always referring to me, sometimes it means "more" - but it sure makes my heart happy each and every time I hear it!

In un-fab news, Lilie has really been on a rampage the past few days! {sigh} Yesterday Hazel informed me that she thought Lilie had drawn on their furniture. Lo and behold there are some of the cutest drawings that I have ever seen scrawled in permanent marker across both headboards and their beautiful dresser. Yesterday Lilie also stole what she thought was candy from the store (it was really little wipe-y things that you put water on . . . they looked like candy. :). We had a wonderful little lesson in honesty and the atonement. :) (Hazel is very thankful that her sister will not be going to jail. :) Also today she smeared more of my lipstick across the bathroom. Lovely. There was one other thing as well, but with the decrease in brain function that happens after midnight, I just can't remember. On an upside, she has been incredibly cute and sweet lately as well. She truly is such a fabulous girl. I just can't figure out why ! --- I just remembered what the other one was! :) Yesterday Lilie woke up at about 5:07 am. I heard her, but she never came upstairs, so I figured (accurately) that she had woke up Hazel and had her help her turn on pbskids.org to play games. When I woke up at 7:30, she was in the bathroom washing her hands. ??? Weird. When I came downstairs, I figured out WHY she was washing her hands. There was sugar covering large sections of carpet, the computer desk, the chair, her dresser, and her bed. {{{double sigh}}} I guess she got hungry . . . 

Lilie. You are such a wonderful girl. {sigh}

Our Awful Situation

Just an interesting little something. - If you've got a few minutes, it's worth a read. If anyone wants to double-check on the sources on the quotes, let me know what you come up with. :) - But I'm pretty sure that they're legit (at least from the ones that I checked). Some may be taken slightly out of context, but still hold water in the overall point of the presentation. Maybe I'm just a crazy old conspiracist, but you love me still anyway, right? :) I'd hate to think of anyone going to Hell in a hand basket uninformed. :) 

President Ezra Taft Benson:

Surely it behooves patriotic citizens to meet together to discuss current conditions in our beloved nation. It is imperative that American citizens become alerted and informed regarding the threat to our welfare, happiness, and freedom. No American is worthy of citizenship in this great land who refuses to take an active interest in these important matters.

Our Awful Situation

(click here)

Shelter

As this world continues to "progress" (toward Socialism)  there is less and less value being placed on mothers. We can all see it all around us. Stay-at-home moms are often looked down upon. Did you know that many (if not a majority) of women (and even mothers) believe that putting a child in day care is actually positive. That staying at home with your children and raising them yourself (you know, taking your kids to the library or the zoo or the park, cooking with them, reading with them, teaching them how to do chores, planting gardens with them, talking with them, having lunch with them, teaching them how to read and count, sing and imagine, giving them one-on-one time) is actually inferior to the "socializing" that they receive in a day-care situation??? There are people out there who believe that it would be better for children to be required to go to all-day preschool or all-day kindergarten. Better?! Are you SERIOUS? This is utterly absurd to me! It is incredibly hard for me to wrap my head around this concept. - That someone could think this and actually believe it.

I think many out there would call me "sheltered". A sheltered little Mormon girl with an unrealistic view of the world. Let me tell you something. I was sheltered. I was sheltered from much of the ugliness of the world. Sheltered from ever feeling unloved or uncared for. Sheltered from a lot of the social smut. Sheltered from drugs. Sheltered from pornography and infidelity. Sheltered from a broken home. Sheltered by a Mother. A REAL mother. A self-sacrificing, beautiful, virtuous, kind, loving, nurturing mother. Sheltered by parents who taught me to pray, to serve, to work. Sheltered by virtue and love. When did SHELTER become a dirty word? 

Shelter: A structure that provides protection from danger; a condition of being protected; that which covers or defends from injury or annoyance; to shield; a guardian; a defense . . .

Isn't shelter one of our "basic" needs? Because I was "sheltered", am I unaware of the ugliness of the world? I am I naive to the dangers of life and spirit which surround us? No. I've got a pretty healthy grip on reality. Am I unaware of the challenges and pain of life? Or am I impervious to them (or think I am)? Of course not. 

When I think of a shelter, I view it as something that covers, that protects, but doesn't make it so that you can't SEE that which is raining down around you. 

I thank God each and every day for families. For being a part of a church that believes that "the family is ordained of God." That "husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. 'Children are an heritage of the Lord' (Psalms 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, to teach them to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God and to be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations."

My greatest hope as a mother is that I can shelter my own children. That they will feel loved and cared for. That they will know who their mother is. That they will trust me and respect me. Because I love them. That I will be able to strengthen them and teach them. That I will be a shield for them. That as they watch, they will learn how to battle the manipulations of society and stand for truth. Steadfast and noble. Filled with assurance, peace, joy, and strength.