The Bachelor Button

My mom gave me some of her bachelor button starts in August. I put them in and took good care of them, and they, amazingly, bloomed in November!! I didn't think they would bloom until next summer, if at all. I'm a fan. I love hearty plants. I'm excited to see you next year, little guy.

Dylan cracks me up.

Back at the end of October, I got some candy corn and put it in little bags for all of my visiting teachees. I wanted to put notes with each bag, just in case the visiting teachees weren't home when I delivered said candy corn, and I thought it might be nice to make the notes all Halloween-ey. So I pulled out my box-o-stickers. I found a bunch of Halloween stickers and chose the ones I wanted to put on the notes. Dylan saw the leftovers and begged to use them to make something artistic. Here is his creation:

You may have to click on the picture to make it bigger, but there are little dialogue bubbles next to all of the main players of the scene. The bat (next to the devil) is saying, very properly, "Hello." The devil is saying, "Hello. Their is the honted house." Apparently, it's a miniature haunted house. There's an owl at the top saying, "Hoooooo."


So cute.

My Weird, Weird Husband - Part 2

On Halloween night, I have to take the kids trick-or-treating, and Ben gets to hand out candy at home. I really, really wish it was the other way around, but he gets so much joy out of scaring the crap out of trick-or-treaters that I sigh and trudge out the door with the kiddos.

This year, he wore the same outfit that he's worn for, like, ten years. I suppose I should wash it. Hmmm. Anyways. Last year, he wore black makeup on his feet, hands, and face. And he got it all over the house. And I had to clean it up. It made me really mad.

This year, I told him no black makeup allowed.

So, he bought fake blood instead:

And he got that all over the house. And I cleaned it up.

Dylan ended up deeply regretting his ninja costume. He decided he wanted to be something really creepy. So he morphed his costume to kind of look like his dad, and then got fake blood on his hands:

He thought he was soooo cool. He keeps telling me that, next year, he's going to dress up in something really scary. He takes after his weird dad.

We go over to my parents' house every Halloween to show them the kids' costumes. When the kids and I got home from trick-or-treating, I was like, "Ben, let's go over to my parents'!"

He frowned and was like, "But then I won't get to hand out candy..."

I was like, "Dude, just put it in the bowl on the front porch with a note."

"But I really want to scare kids."

Sigh. "Okayyyyy."

As I was packing the three oldest kids in the car, some trick-or-treaters came to our door. Ben opened the door, growling and scaring them, and then said in a gravelly voice, "Ohhh, sorry. I was just eating a baby..... Heheheheheh..."

I rolled my eyes and left.

A Very Tim Burton-ey Halloween

Just like "A Very Brady Christmas." But you'll be able to recognize all of the main players. (That's Cindy???? Whaaaaa???)

So. Word on the street was that the Scoresby Farms tent had really cheap, good pumpkins. I went to check it out, and they truly had wonderful prices. It ended up being like $1 per pumpkin. And they were decently-sized. And they ended up being wonderful for carving. None of that surprise-spaghetti-innards nonsense. We've gone to Wal-Mart in the past, and their pumpkins are horrible for carving. I've become a die-hard Scoresby Farms Girl forever.

There were these giant pumpkins there that were like $7. You know, the kinds that are like the size of a person. Dylan wanted one soooo badly. I told him that Dad would get mad if I spent too much on pumpkins. When I told Ben about it later, he giggled and said, "You know what? I totally would have gotten it."

You know how we had this discussion ("we" meaning you two readers and me) about theories that turn into laws? A law I have discovered at my house is this - if Kar overspends, she gets into trouble (a.k.a. Ben says all these passive-aggressive things and makes her feel really guilty about spending too much money. And "too much money" is, like, two dollars. Seriously.). If Ben overspends, it's okay. I shall heretofore call it The Law of Double Standards. I have decided that, since this law rules our household, Ben is in charge of getting groceries. He always goes over budget, getting everything that we need (When I go, it's like, "Hmmm. Should we buy milk or should we buy a winter coat for Micah? Which do we need more? Um, both... But we only have money for one..."), making me happy, a. because he doesn't get mad at me, and b. because we have the things that we need.

Wow. Tangent of the century.

So anyways. Carving pumpkins. Such a pain in the butt. But also so much fun. To me, carving pumpkins is like a fun little art project. It's just the gutting of the pumpkins that I really hate. My dear husband gutted them for me this year, which was awesome. See? He ain't so bad. :)

Ben started carving his pumpkins while watching a dumb show online:

But I told him that me and the kids would like to spend more time with him, and wouldn't he like to spend more time with us by carving in the dining room with us?? See, two can play at the passive-aggressive, guilt-trip game.

That plant behind him makes him look like he's wearing futuristic shoulder pads or something.

And those ear buds he's wearing are so crappy. They're falling apart, and one of them doesn't have sound coming through. I know this because I steal them to jog at MY NEW GYM!!! (Post coming on that very soon.) I think I might get him/me some new ear buds for Christmas stocking stuffers. Or make him go buy them, so that I don't get into trouble. :)

So Ben very gamely came to the dining room to carve with the rest of us:

When Tim was here, he bought us one large pumpkin and four smaller, pie pumpkins. Ben's concept was to have this murderous pumpkin weilding a knife, and the smaller pumpkins fleeing in fear.

Here's the end result:

Ben really is so macabre. He loves zombie movies and scary movies and all kinds of stuff.

What we've done in the past with the kids is to have them draw what they want their pumpkin to look like, and then I carve their drawings. Dylan's concept this year was a worm coming out of a pumpkin's mouth to eat a poor little moth.

The drawing:

(I love how he sticks out his tongue when he's concentrating. I think that's so cute.)

And the finished product:

In the past, I haven't let Dylan touch the sawing tools, but this year, he convinced me to trust him. And he did such an amazing job! He used those pattern thingeys and carved two pumpkins all by himself:

(There's that cute little tongue thing again!)

Finished products:

So impressive.

Sadie's pumpkin, ohhhhhhh. Lots of work. Here is her drawing:

It took me roughly fifty hours to carve that sucker:

She waited patiently:

And the finished product:

Cool, huh? That's why I called this a Very Tim Burton-ey Halloween. It looks like something out of one of his movies.

All of the kids' creations together:

Micah's concept was to steal trick-or-treating candy out of the bowl:

That is ALWAYS his plan - the aquiring and eating of candy. He keeps raiding our advent calendar and stealing all of the candy out of it. Naughty kid.

I can see why they call it "Babe's."

So. There's this bakery in town called Babe's Bakery. They serve lunch, in addition to doing their bakery business (my wedding cake was from Babe's). Their food is so wonderful. I'm partial to the Monte Cristo sandwich. My sisters really like the veggie sandwich.

Lex was once dating this guy, and he came up to I.F. for a few days to visit. Lex wanted to show him all of her favorite local places, so she took him to lunch at Babe's. He looked around at the mostly-geriatric clientele, and then at the middle-aged waitresses, and he said, "Well, I can see why they call it 'Babe's.'" So funny.

Mom wanted to go to Babe's on her birthday, so the sistahs who live in town joined her and Dad there. It was so fun, though my Monte Cristo was really sub-par. Maybe I should entertain the idea of eating a veggie sandwich. I don't know - a sandwich without meat seems really weird to me...

Pics from our little luncheon:

Me and ma:

Me and Pa:

Yes, I know that I looked like a flower. It was a busy day. No time for hair or makeup. As usual.

Nat and Ma:

I wish I could show you a picture of what we girls got Mom for her birthday, but then that would expose her last name, and I try to avoid last names on here. I got the idea from a display at Michael's. It's called Letter Photography. You can spell a person's name or a family's last name, or a concept word, like "family" or "dream" or something. You have got to take a look at these things - I think they are the best gifts ever. I totally want one for my house. It was a hit. Mom has it proudly displayed above her fireplace. You can go to the company called Alphabet Photography, but they mat and frame the photographs themselves and can be very pricey. Letter Photography had way better prices on the photos themselves, and then you can get a mat and frame just at a store in town for a much cheaper price. So there's my schpiel about that. They should pay me for giving them such good advertising. :)

I had a great time going to lunch and just being myself with my sister and folks. I sometimes get tired of being in Mom Phase, you know? Always taking care of others, cleaning up messes, worrying... it was nice to be carefree and to have a fun, adult conversation. Thanks for taking us, Ma and Pa.

The Coolest Ward EVER!!

When we lived in San Diego, our ward was phenomenal. Every single ward member went to every single activity. It really felt like a family. The Sunday before we moved up to Idaho, they had our family come to the front of the chapel at the end of sacrament meeting, and the whole congregation sang, "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again" to us. It was a ward tradition. I sat up there crying during the whole hymn. I wondered if I would ever again be in a ward where I felt so loved, wanted, and involved.

We were so lucky to move into this neighborhood because of this ward. I am so in love with it. Soooo much fun. It's like one big, happy family.

Our ward really gets into our annual trunk-or-treat. Everyone (except for me, you know, because of the whole I-hate-wearing-costumes thing) dresses up. Everyone decorates their cars. Everyone brings candies for the younguns. And everyone brings tasty food for the adults. I'm always a fan of tasty food.

Last year, I had to take all three kids by myself, in the, like, negative 20-degree weather. It was killer. (Ben was on a business trip.) This year, happily, I had him there to help me.

He took some pics of the kids in the front yard before we headed over to the church. Mikey:

Now see? This is what he was supposed to look like when we went to Ben's work party. Micah wouldn't wear the whole ensemble for me, but he sure as heckfire did it for his daddy. Sheesh. I'd like to take credit for the cuteness of the costume. Well, half credit. Half credit goes to my mom for buying the horse part for Dylan when he was two. I get half credit for coming up with the idea to put on fake legs with cowboy boots attached to them. I think this costume is hilarious. My kids have really hated wearing it. Maybe because it weighs like twenty pounds with everything on like that.

The three oldest together:

Dylan is such a dork. He's holding this toy that he dismantled in his hand. It was like a koosh ball caterpillar. (I love koosh balls. Soooo fun. I used one when I used to do test reviews with my students. I would ask a question and throw the koosh to a student. He would answer and throw it back to me. I also had them toss it to each other when we read aloud. A student would read as much as he wanted to [he had to read at least a full sentence before passing it on] and then toss it to someone else, who would then read. I had to be careful with this activity. The kids would throw it really hard at each other to be funny. So I enacted the rule, "Throw rainbows, not bullets.")

So back to the koosh caterpillar. Dylan took the squishy part out from inside, and then he would squish it in his hand, with a little part coming out and making something resembling a bubble, and he would say that it "looks like a fart." Because you can see farts??? No....

I love this one, because you can see his little mouth smiling under his mask:

I took a shot of Gagey inside. I cannot get enough of this costume (I also cannot get enough of him):

He's so cuuuuuute!! Aaaaand the costume seemed comfortable. It was plush inside and out. None of this plastic-ey, felt-type material inside and fake plush on the outside.

Example of how much our ward gets into this activity:

Brandon and Richard L. We had one couple dress like people from Kiss (and they served the most amazing meatballs I have ever tasted). I couldn't even recognize our bishop and his wife, who were making delicious, homemade scones for the adults. He was a witch, and I can't remember what she was. So cool.

We took two strollers, one for Gage and one for Mikey. That ended up being a really good decision:

Mikey would have had a hard time walking in his twenty-pound costume. He refused to wear the hat anymore past the pictures in front of the house.

One family even had a little fishing curtain activity:

As you can see in the above picture, Gage ended up not being a fan of his stroller. He was tired. He ended up falling asleep in my arms.

The activity was a blast, and we had fabulous weather. And I didn't have to do it alone this year, thank goodness. I love you, Ward!!

I really hope this does the trick.

I think this picture is really, really funny. I did a Google search for images associated with Prevacid, and this made me laugh so hard that I just had to put it on my blog.

Anyways. Took the Gagemeister to the doc today. He thinks it's acid reflux, but they're going to do a test on Friday to see if there's something physiologically wrong, like pyloric stenosis or a stomach that's twisted around, or something like that.

They took his blood, which was hard for me to watch. I mean, I didn't watch the needle go in (I couldn't), but I had to hold him while they stretched out his skinny little arm, tied that harsh rubber rope thing around his bicep, and then sat and tried to poke around for a vein. The lab lady was training a phlebotomist. We got the trainee. Gage's arm is going to be black and blue tomorrow. Sigh. People need hands-on experience in cases like this, so I understand. But not on my kid. :)

So we'll get the blood test results tomorrow, and then the GI test results on Friday afternoon. Until then, the doc is having me put Gage on Prevacid. They were supposed to have called it in to the pharmacy, but when I went tonight (several hours after we saw the doc), the pharmacist said they hadn't called it in. So I called and left a message. And the doc's office called me back and said that they sent the prescription via fax several hours ago. So now I have to call the pharmacy again. I love it when I have to help people to do their jobs. :)

So we'll see how it goes. I really worry that his barfing has led to some other problems. For instance, the doc checked to see if Gage is holding his head up, and Gage isn't doing so well in that department. When the doc lifted him up from the table, Gage wasn't holding his head very well - it was drooping a bit. When the doc put him on his tummy, he wasn't lifting his head. And when he held him straight up, Gage's head bobbled around a little bit. So I'm freaking out, like, "He is barfing, so he's not getting enough nutrition, and he's not taking very good naps, probably because he's hungry because he barfs up too much, so now he's going to get developmental delays!!!" Because that's exactly what happened to Micah, folks. He wasn't getting enough food, therefore he was hungry, therefore he wouldn't nap enough, therefore he now has a developmental delay.

I just feel like a really bad mother. It seems crazy that three out of my four children had feeding problems as newborns. Sadie was my only normal eater. So is it coincidence, or am I doing something horribly wrong???