Random information

Moe the horse had a big knot on his abdomen today. When I looked closer there was pus dripping out and what looked like intestines protruding. I sort of freaked out. Thankfully there is a vet that makes house visits in town and he came out and saw him. Apparently he punctured his skin on something, maybe a stick or the cow's horn (?)and it was not intestines coming out after all but just fatty tissue! Whew! A week's worth of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories should do the trick. Otherwise he is doing well and Liesel and he are becoming good pals. He even let her ride backwards bareback. I wish I had gotten a picture of that.

Yesterday I called poison control because Hope drank the liquid out of a glow stick. Turns out glow stick liquid is only hazardous if it gets in your eye. The really dumb part about this is, I was the one who cut the top off and gave it to her to drink! I thought it was one of those wax candies with liquid inside. You remember those candies from when we were kids? Do they still even make those anymore? She is doing fine. Can you believe how silly that was of me? I kept thinking to myself, I wonder why they are making these so hard to open now, I finally gave up on the lid and just cut it open for her. My goodness. You can see why I would have done this....Right? Please say yes.

Glowstick:

Wax candies:

Someone asked about the status of our floors. Well, over the past two months so many white spots have popped up from moisture that now you can't even see the debris that was sealed under. The funny thing is, we have had three different people come recently who thought that we had purposely marbled and distressed them this way. They liked them! Meanwhile we never did hear back from the floor people about either fixing the floors or trying to get payment from us. They claimed they were going to take us to court for payment, but almost 60 days have passed with no word about it either way. So I'm assuming they moved on and so probably we will too. I am tempted to leave them just as they are. After all, if we had nice floors Hope wouldn't be able to do her chores wearing roller blades.



We had to call a plumber out twice last week. First because there was a big, muddy puddle in the front yard from a busted underground pipe, and two days later because our garbage disposal got stopped up. The plumber asked me if there have been any unusual objects thrown into the kitchen drain recently, and I answered, "I have five kids."

Meanwhile this is what has been going on in the front yard probably as I type even.


Both my parents and John's mom came for a visit last week and as always it was lots of fun. I took this sweet photo of Ava with Opa during family devotional time. I think she really likes him!

Words cannot tell how GLAD I am that I made the decision to take Hope out of preschool! Initially I though she would be really bored here at home without anybody to play with, but this cat has really been a great sibling substitute. Poor little guy. I wonder if he likes dressing up like a fairy and a princess and pretending to be Baby Jesus in the manger?






Hope is reading! If you are looking for a good reading/phonics program, I highly recommend the Explode the Code workbooks. I have used these on all my kids. All three of the older kids are great spellers, and I am pretty sure these books had something to do with it. They are really entertaining and funny too.

Happy November!

I love turning the page on my calendar.There is nothing like having a fresh start, a clean slate every month.

Wait a minute....

Darn it!

Isn't it weird how these kinds of things can both irritate the heck out of you yet put a big smile on your face at the same time?

Happy November everybody!

I went to the Goodwill last week with the kids to try to come up with some cheap and fun costumes. I found the big stuffed sheep for $1, and the white ruffly dress for $3, thus Little Bo Peep was created. The bonnet was a doll dress tied on backwards with a ribbon.

The chicken was inspired by a couple of little eggs that Hope picked up and wanted to buy so she could pretend that she was their mama hen.

Simeon saw the shirt at the Goodwill and decided he wanted to dress like a redneck guy. Thus Larry the Cable Guy. Not because he has ever seen Larry the Cable Guy. In fact I swear Simeon didn't even know who he was....I had a little bit of a panic attack yesterday when I realized I should have probably explained that our kids DO NOT, I repeat do NOT watch potty mouthed comedians. ha!

And Brangelina, yes, are they not adorable? Liesel tried the sunglasses on at the Goodwill, and said "How do I look?" Next thing you know I'm tying scarfs and strapping baby dolls to their backs. I just couldn't resist. I am cheap this way, and thankfully my kids are pretty flexible, even when they have no idea who they're dressed as. Jude did win first place at our church's costume contest for his age group, and earned himself a Toys R Us gift certificate. Can't complain about that!

We have always been thankful for churches that provide fun alternatives to trick or treating. Tonight we were invited to the Fall Festival Celebration put on by my sister's church. It is also the church we attended up until two years ago so we were able to catch up with several old friends. There were hay rides, horseback riding, a costume parade, a bonfire, S'mores, and of course lots of candy. It was really fun, and it was great to catch up with old friends. Amazing how big everyone else's kids seemed after not seeing them for so long.

Here are some pictures of the kids in their costumes.

Originally Hope wanted to be a Mama Hen with baby chicks. She even helped me put the little nest together and make all the little chicks. But once she saw how cute Ava looked as Little Bo Peep she changed her mind and the girls traded costumes. They wear the same size now after all, and Ava didn't care a bit.

(Note to self: Never ever ever ever ever ever.....ever ever ever....ever ever ever ever ever ever ever again make another chicken costume.)

Ava's chicken talons kept getting run over by the stroller wheels and for some reason I thought I should tell you that.

Can anyone guess who Simeon is?

And how about Liesel and Jude?

And just because he was SO adorable, I have to post a photo of my foster nephew, K, dressed as a little skunk. From a distance, and with K. turned the other way around, it really looked like my dad was carrying an actual skunk. It was a little freaky. I have to say, I THOROUGHLY enjoyed carrying this cute little stinker around tonight. His presence is welcome anytime.

Spirit Week and a front yard carousel

This week is Spirit Week for my kids. They think it's really cool that they get to 'dress up' every day this week.

You know, it's things like Pajama Day, Mismatched Socks Day, Turn your Clothes Inside-Out Day, Crazy Hair Day........

It occurred to me maybe they're excited because they'll be re-living their homeschooling days again!

On a side note, did you know I have never liked typing LOL, because in reality, I am not a LOL kind of person. And I certainly do not ROFLOL. So from now on when I refer to something I think is funny I will write: LOI....Laughing on the inside.


I had a few minutes to kill today on my way to pick up Ava from school and I ended up driving around the surrounding neighborhood just for the heck of it. I took this photo with my cell phone to show the kids a house with a little carousel in the yard. How cute and clever is that. With a quarter slot and everything.

I guess I decided there is really no reason to change the password after all. So I just switched it back to the old password. Sorry for the confusion. Please let me know you were there by leaving a comment. Please?