Author: soggycheerios

4:44 am and I hear a little pitter patter of feet coming down the hall. Alyssa comes into the room, Danny is tuned to react to screaming, but I’m tuned into pitter patters. I rolled over and told Danny he had a little friend by his bed, she asked to snuggle, so he picked her up and tucked her under his arm pit and went back to sleep. Then we heard that sound that we all dread hearing, someone was vomiting. I knew when it was over by the scream that it was Emma. Of course we went down there and took care of her, tucked her back into bed, and went down there again in an hour to do the same. Then again, and again, and eventually the sun came up and we could assess the damage. This story is sad because today Emma’s GT class was going to take a trip to the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra. Emma has been talking non stop about this outing for weeks now, and she knew she would be unable to go. I called her teacher at 8:00, and told her Emma wouldn’t make it, but that Tanner and I were still going to come. So Tanner and I took an adventure to Reno, I don’t often get one on one time with Tanner, and I enjoyed his company. He enjoyed putting the coins into the parking meter, we watched Reno’s Christmas Tree drive into town, and watched them put it up. We got to see them setting up the Ice Rink, and enjoyed the entire day. The concert was fun, they really tailored it to children, playing scary songs from Phantom of the Opera, Bach, and the theme song of Jurassic Park. We got demonstrations of different instruments making different feelings. Emma would have loved it, too bad she couldn’t make it, life is full of disappointment sometimes. A local resort in Reno is having the Reno Philharmonic Christmas Concert in December with dancers and lights and all sort of fauna that I’m going to try and get tickets for so that Emma can enjoy the Philharmonic also.

On another topic, Friday is Tanner’s 8th birthday! And I’m having a Star Wars party for him. I have never been able to stay awake for those movies, and I guess I lack an appreciation for them. I know flame away, how could I not watch Star Wars? Believe me it wasn’t hard. So Tanner says you can make me a Death Star cake, sure I say, mental note-check what a Death Star is. For those of you who are Star Wars impaired like me it’s not a star… So I’m in trouble here, how do I make a cake for Star Wars? Sigh. How do I get into these things? So there is this blog I love to go to it is called cakewreckers.blogspot.com or something similar, I’d have to go look it up, but it shows horrible cakes, and all the mistakes people make. The whole site cracks me up, it’s worth a trip to, but I should just submit my cake now to this lady for her ridicule and let her get it over with. I will have a good attitude. Hey Target sells action figures, can I stab those into a cake? Tanner is very excited, he had his baptism interview on Sunday and he is ready and excited to be baptized on Saturday the 29th at 10:00am. I’m proud of him, he’s good natured and a joy to be with.

Doing pickup duty this morning, I ran into this little guy. As badly as I felt, I had to introduce him to the vacuum. Poor guy didn’t even see it coming. He is longer then a quarter in size, and has 10 legs, so what does that make him? Any ideas? I think I will be cleaning out under beds, and other hiding places because my little visitor gives me the creeps.

I went and researched this little cutie, go here to read about him. He is called a Wind Scorpion.

Aubrey: What’s tomorrow?
Mom: Tomorrow is tomorrow.
Aubrey: NOOO! What is tomorrow?
Mom: When it’s tomorrow you can call it today…
Aubrey: NOOOO!!! What is tomorrow?
Mom: Good Gravy kid, why don’t you tell me what tomorrow is?
Aubrey: Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day.
Mom: Oh.
Aubrey: What is Veteran’s Day?
Mom: It’s the day we think about and thank the people who protect us and our country.
Aubrey: How come we don’t?
Mom: Don’t what?
Aubrey: Say Thank You…
Mom: Hmmm, good point, we should, we will.

Once again, I have been taught by my little ones. Thanks Aubrey.

I had a dentist appointment this morning. This generally, does not put me in the best of moods, and I go in with the attitude of lets get this over with. Today I walked in and almost instantly knew it was going to be one of those days. There before me sat, Michael Jackson, now I know it wasn’t really Michael Jackson that was just my first impression. Here sat a lady, dressed from head to toe in black, covered in fur, wearing a pair of earrings that look like she stole from my Mothers chandelier. This was odd, but it got odder. She was wearing white lipstick, yes, white, it looked like she mistakenly picked up white out instead of her lip gloss. The application of the white out was on her lips and probably and inch around the outside of her lips, and matched her white powder foundation wonderfully. I was nice, and just walked in and sat down… picked up a magazine, and looked preoccupied. I must not have been convincing enough because she started talking to me. She asked me why the people at the office hate her? That they were being so mean to her… I put my magazine down and listened to her, figuring that someday I could be an eccentric old lady who just needs someone to talk to, but if I ever put white out on, someone tell me. So I said, they were mean to you? “Yes, I needed them to check my credit, don’t they know my computer is broken, I give them so much money, the least they can do is get online and check my account for me.” “My car is broken, I had to walk here, and they wont check my account, they don’t have to be hateful with me, I’m a person… on an on she went.” So I asked her if she had her card, that she could borrow my phone and call the number on the back of her card, and get her account info, she declined my offer saying she wouldn’t know how to do that, and not wanting to ask her personal info about her social security number to help her I just let her continue to rant to me. Then walks in a large hairy man. We’re talking pony tails and earrings, and then I smelled something, now I have a pregnant nose so it’s possible it wasn’t as bad as I smelled, but to me it was pretty bad. I thought maybe my Michael Jackson lady’s fox around her neck had passed on, or maybe it was the dead bunnies on her gloves, or the dead squirrel on her head, but I’m pretty sure it was the guy who just walked in. It wasn’t horribly offensive, so I decided to ignore… what would I have done anyway, then the lady opened the door and called my name, I’ve never been so happy to see the dentist in all my life.
I made a promise to myself to be more understanding of people. When I think of this lady, who tried hard to look her best, but had to walk to the dentist, she probably really could use some help. I have my oddities, and I’d rather people be understanding of them then judgmental, which with this lady I really tried but wasn’t sure how I could have helped her. I’m glad everyone is a little odd it makes life more interesting.

So I just had a conversation with Aubrey. She said so seriously and very cute. “Mom, the new baby is a boy.” “Oh Yeah?” I said, then I asked her how she knew, and she said “I’ve been doing some thinking, and my thinking says it’s a boy”. Aubrey seems pretty certain… but we wont be letting her name him, she wants to name him Ella. Tanner would be delighted to have a brother, but then I wonder how much joy he’ll get out of him when he’ll be 8 years older then him… Just some random thoughts. Believe me this is a much better topic then the gross thing that occurred in the back yard this morning.

Alyssa is very shy, and quiet, and the school party seemed to be a little much for her. Everywhere she went there were kids trying to pick her up and adults who stopped to tell her how cute she was, and being the center of attention is not her idea of a good time. She did manage to tell a few adults that she was a lady bug, but that was getting her even more attention. Finally her fingers went in her mouth, and she was done with being cute.

We went to Danny’s work party after school. When Alyssa figured out that they were handing her candy she forgot all shyness and started helping herself to as much as she could take. There was this large, bald, nicely built probation guy there who was encouraging Alyssa to take as much as she could. I thought Alyssa wouldn’t even approach him, but she proved me wrong and took his challenge to heart and the more candy she would take the more he laughed and encouraged her to take more. I guess for candy she’ll put up with being the center of attention.

For your viewing pleasure, Danny as Captain Jack Sparrow!
Only one more day of this Halloween stuff, then on to one of my favorite times of the year… I’ve already been torturing the kids with Christmas music in the mornings… now no one can stop me!
I absolutely love Thanksgiving, I just think Christmas music can be a part of the whole season, including Thanksgiving, I hold off on all Christmas decor, but the music, 30 days is just not enough of it.

Every year our ward holds a trunk or treat a week or two before Halloween. That is when the chaos begins. I really don’t mind Halloween, it just that they have to do costumes so many times. The day Nevada became a state is also Halloween, so in the past they have actually moved Halloween to accommodate Nevada Day celebrations. Recently they passed a law that states that Nevada Day will be celebrated on the last Friday of October, which this year happens to fall on Halloween. So there is no school on Halloween, so I have to get the kids in costume on Thursday and then again on Friday for Trick or Treating. So the trunk or treat is just the beginning of the season of Halloween. When I was a kid, we had Halloween on Halloween, we dressed once, and then it was over. The kids have to make a run into Danny’s office on Thursday for his work party, and they come out with more candy there then when they trick or treat, it’s just amazing how much candy they get. I’ll stop being a scrooge now and move on to some cute picture of the kids in their costumes. The Trunk or Treat was fun. It was combined with the other ward here in Dayton and it was fun seeing the other families that we used to work with when we were just one ward. We had chili and corn bread, and then the candy began.

In case you can’t tell, Emma is a butterfly, Tanner is a mad scientist, Alyssa is a lady bug, and Aubrey is Tinker Bell.

Lynda made this movie for us of the pictures she took for the girls birthday. You can check out her site at www.bluelakephotography.typepad.com I really wanted to share these with Grandparents but couldn’t get it figured out, so I finally asked Danny to help me get this on here.

Thought this picture was worth sharing…
Aubrey cracks me up… I didn’t know she could cross her eyes so well. That kid is always good for a laugh.

Grandpa T, brought Tanner and Emma some books to read when he was here visiting a couple of weeks ago. Tanner is a funny reader, he’ll read almost anything non-fiction, he loves Mythology, how things work, information about animals etc… and Popular Science is often an object of contention between Tanner and his Dad. I read books with him at night that I think he wouldn’t necessarily read on his own and might be a bit of a challenge for him. He enjoys that I think just because it’s one on one time with me. So we have been reading Island of the Blue Dolphins together the last couple of weeks. Anyway, he picked up The Lightening Thief, that Grandpa brought over, and couldn’t put it down. Walking through grocery stores, riding in the car, preferred it over TV time, in the last two weeks he has devoured all 4 books in the series. When I find a fiction book that captures his attention I feel like I have to share it with the world. He came running into my room when he finished book 4, it was pretty late at night, and I was surprised to see him awake. He was so upset, I guess book 4 isn’t the end, and he’s frustrated because they didn’t finish the story. I’m so glad he found something to read besides Star Wars, and Indiana Jones.