Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! We had a very enjoyable day and night. And we had 6 little trick or treaters, since nobody was sick! Devin was a Hippy Girl. She was so excited because her dress was so "beautiful".

And Dalton was a GI Joe guy, the good guy I guess. I learned tonight that the guy in black is good and the guy in white is bad. Joseph happened to be the guy in white tonight!
Shawndra was a mixture of everything. She said she was a Super Bat Woman. I think she should be a "Where's Waldo Bat Woman" with those crazy pants. Her attitude was sure spunky when she was dressed up.

Shaylee was a Witch with a cape.

These two girls were hilarious all dressed up. Can you see the spunk in Shawndra? Didn't take long for Shaylee to follow suit!

And of course it wouldn't be a typical Halloween at our house without little Jayden refusing to do anything. Lots of bribing, some gum, a trip to the Children's Museum, and making it a game to "touch Devin as fast as he could" is what it took to get a picture with him in it. And this seriously cracks me up with him standing off to the side.

Devin's full view outside grandma's house.

And here's Joseph as the white GI Joe like I had mentioned earlier. He was the bad guy.

How was your Halloween?

flu

Boy did the flu hit me hard, and I wasn't the first to get it in our house, but definitely have had it the worst so far.

Jayden is sick and on antibiotics. Thankfully he has not come down with the flu, but his cough is really nasty. It's been bad enough where we have kept him home from preschool and daycare since Wednesday. Last night was rough with him. His cough and tantrums were uncontrollable. And trying to do anything to help him just made him madder.

Shaylee had the flu Wednesday and Thursday. Sparing you the details, hers only came out the upper end. But hers was followed by headache and dizziness.

As for me, the flu hit me at midnight Thursday night into Friday morning. It was awful. I haven't had the flu in over 15 years. I guess it was my turn to make up for it. Yesterday I slept probably 19 hours out of the day. I would be up for about an hour and then have to sleep 2-3 hours. My flu...both ends. Today is more weak and very dizzy. I was able to shower and even cook dinner. Hopefully I'm on the mend and no one else in the family comes down with this crap because it sure sucks.

Ironically, last year on Halloween, we had 2 sick kids (Devin and Joseph) and they weren't allowed to go trick or treating since they had fevers and coughs. I'm really hoping they don't get sick between now and tomorrow. They've been healthy so far, so the scary thing is...it's probably their turn next unless it skips them.

tidbits

Recent tidbits from our house:

• My laundry pile is now up to 5 full loads because our 2 year old washer decided to have the bearings go out of it.
• Jayden and I hung out together today because he still had a low fever and a bad cough, which required a trip to the doctor. Antibiotics are in the body and hopefully going to work some magic.
• I'm so proud of my school age kids who all had wonderful reports at conference time. I have 2 straight A middle schoolers and 3 elementary students with awesome grades!
• All of our garbage cans blew away in the wind. I drove around and searched and found 2 that I think are ours. Another one is out in the middle of a corn field, but there's no way I'm walking way out there to get it.
• I made chili in the crock pot today, then it spilled over the pot and into the crock (?) and produced a potent burning smell until I figured out how to get the scorching hot pot out and was able to clean out the crock. Yes, it was hot. And yes, I let it sit outside in the hurricane winds to cool it off faster.

And that's about it for tonight. :)

the dog ate my homework

I mean, the dog ate my comforter. And I think the young boy sitting next to him helped. Well not eat it, but helped destroy it.

I could hear them laughing in my room. Ok, not them, but one of them. The boy was laughing and it was the cute heart warming laugh.

So I wasn't worried. Then I went in there and looked and of course they were having a hay day tearing apart my comforter!

And I would say with the stuffing hanging from his mouth, this guy here is the most guilty. Wouldn't you say?

Friday

Today is technically Friday, even though it's 2:30 in the morning as I type this. I'm glad it's Friday too because apparently my mind thinks I don't need sleep tonight. My eyes and my body feel like they need it, but not my mind. Too many thoughts are swirling through it as I contemplate a big decision regarding work. I can't say anything more about it because most of job falls under the confidentiality rules. Say a prayer though because it's tough for me right now.

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Mike and I went after school today to pick up the girls' frozen foods they sold for band, came home, sorted through it, and delivered 1 item before we realized 4:30 is not a good time to catch people at home. We brought the food back and filled our deep freeze. Thankfully we had a deep freeze to fill. After supper we went out again and were able to deliver all but 2 houses and then 2 grandmas. That's quite the chore to deliver stuff at a later date. Not to mention there was no address on 4 houses that Shaylee sold to. We did find all but 1 in the phone book, and the other was a "let's try this address and see" and got lucky!

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Joseph came home sick from school today. They said he was complaining of a really bad stomach ache. I guess they were right because he threw up twice after getting home.

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This weekend is Hobo Days. I bet our scanner will be loud and crazy, in which most cases means we shut it off or turn it down. Funny how we used to have it loud all the time, but now find our self more annoyed with it than anything. We'll also be heading to the parade on Saturday morning. That's one that I never miss.

when times are tough

Sometimes when times are tough, it's hard to see the good in things. For me, it's been incredibly difficult to see into the future and how we will make ends meet. Financially speaking, life has been quite challenging since our central air and furnace was replaced this summer. Not only was that an unexpected expense, but we had just put new soffits and gutters on the house, so we drained our savings. That left us scrambling. Thankfully, our parents were able to give us a loan, to pay off the debt of the new units.

With these huge expenses this summer, our savings turning non-existent, I have found the day to day stuff has been extremely challenging. Coming up with lunch money, groceries, and even the change in season clothes. We have been getting by, living paycheck to paycheck, and doing the best we can to make ends meet.

Tonight, one of my closest friends, gave me a tote full of clothes for our boys. These were clothes like my boys have never had. Warm winter clothes arrived at the perfect time. I cannot express how grateful I am to her for blessing our family with this gift. Dalton and Joseph literally have a new wardrobe. Prayers have been answered. Thank you so much!

old house and more

I found an old house today. A really old house. Or at least it looks really old and really cool. It's located about 40 minutes from here. Of course I didn't have my camera with me to take pictures, but I definitely plan to go back sometime in the next week with camera in tow. I don't know what it is about this house that makes me want to snap some shots. Could it be there is no paint or now windows? Maybe. I'll be bringing pictures soon, I hope!

This weekend is Hobo Days. It's possible we'll only have one child with us for the parade. That would be really odd, since we've always had all the kids with us. Either way, we'll be in town for the parade.

Joseph's arm is healing well. In fact, he doesn't need to wear the brace anymore. I guess that's why he gives it to Dalton to wear. Ha! Boys will be boys.

The apples are falling from the trees slowly but surely. I'm betting it won't be long before Mike is climbing them to shake the limbs so the apples can fall, like he did last year. The leaves keep falling. I never realized how many leaves can come from one tree. Not that we have one tree. We actually have ten or more trees. This year Mike has been mulching the leaves instead of us raking them.

The girls have frozen food arriving on Thursday from a fund raiser they did for band. Guess we'll be busy that night delivering all the food people ordered. Hopefully people are home!

Tomorrow is a really, really busy day for me. I think I will be going non-stop from 6am until dark. Eek!

reactions

REACTIONS are gone. Not mine...but the annoying buttons that displayed below every post. I finally spent 20 minutes searching for the answer, found it, and changed it. I'm quite excited, although you may not care!

I've started this post 5 times now and I keep deleting what I write. For some reason I feel like I can't be open on my blog anymore. The things I want to write need to be guarded or maybe I'm scared of the comments that would roll in. I want to be completely open and honest on here, after all it's my blog, but I sit and think maybe some things just need to stay covered for now. I'm really hoping some day that I can just let my thoughts pour out of me.

I can say that being a stepmom is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Parenting in general has become so much more difficult than it was when the kids were younger. Funny how as the kids get older you exchange one or more problems for others. I can see the tween/teen years are going to be interesting. And having 5 teenagers at one time is not something I am ready for. Eek! Good thing I've got years before that happens.

Today was a tough day for multiple reasons. I'm hoping tomorrow is better.

I'm attempting to post through mobile blogging.

Joseph's arm

Joseph is in a splint again. He slipped on his bunk bed ladder and his wrist hit the railing on the lower bunk. Thankfully, nothing is broken. X-rays didn't show anything, so the doctor figures he just bruised the bone. He will wear the splint for a couple of weeks or until his arm is feeling better. 2 years ago he did something similar, but actually broke the other arm, so we're thankful nothing was broke this time. He's in good spirits.

keyed

Not only was it hard coming back to work after a 4 day weekend, knowing that I had "lost" 8 hours of office time due to the holiday, but it was equally difficult to see someone keyed my work van. They give me a 2010 brand new van to drive and it's been beat up so bad in the last 6 months and it's not even my fault! It has 4 rock chips on the windshield, not to mention the huge chip that actually took the paint off above the windshield. Then it got loaned out to some other co-workers and it came back with a bent license plate and scratches down the side. But now, I have a very deep scratch across the top of the hood. $400 to fix. Thankfully it's not my bill...and that's if they even fix it.

So whoever you are...whoever felt the need to vandalize my van....I hope you feel good about yourself! (as if you even know this blog exists)

dump truck

Ever since I was a sophomore in high school, after a bad car accident, I have been a nervous passenger in cars. If the person I'm riding with isn't slowing down and leaving a space between our car and the vehicle in front of us, I'm grabbing the drivers arm and making absurd noises come out my mouth. So imagine my fear today as we were cruising along at 65-75 mph and I see the car in front of us come to a stop!

I grabbed my husband's arm and squeezed so hard the tips of my fingers hurt. Then when I realized we were not going to hit the car in front of us, my eyes turn to the side mirror where I'm watching the car and semi-truck behind us. I'm fearing they won't stop in time and they will plow into the back of our car. Thankfully that didn't happen.

Traffic came to a complete stand still. We were right in front of a bridge on the Interstate and there were cement barricades near by and there we sat. My husband could see what looked like a semi-truck in the ditch, but wasn't for sure. We sat and waited, but it wasn't long before people started getting out on the Interstate and started walking forward to see what happened. That's when we could see there had been an accident about 15 cars in front of us.

My husband stayed in the ditch and watched for emergency vehicles while I sat in the car with the kids. They really wanted to get out and look, but I wouldn't let them. Getting out on the Interstate was not safe for kids. About 10 minutes later, a Highway Patrol came along. My husband directed a car out of the line into the construction side and then directed the HP to come through around the other car. Good thing someone took a leadership role, otherwise the HP wouldn't have gotten through without other means.

Traffic got moving after about 20 minutes of sitting still. As soon as we came over the bridge, I seen wheels and they weren't on the ground, but rather, were facing me. That's when Mike said, "That's a dump truck on it's side." And that it was. Not only was the dump truck on it's side, but it's load of asphalt was all over the Interstate. It was a huge mess! I snapped this picture with my phone.

I watched the 5 and 6pm news, but neither station had anything on it. We're thinking based on the looks of things that he hit the cement barricades, got on the shoulder and then over corrected to the right, which caused him to over correct to the left and he tipped, spilling his load. But that is just a guess. I just hope the driver is ok. We did meet the ambulance as we drove by.

playing in the beans

I can always tell it's Harvest time because the bean plant becomes extremely busy. Semi-trucks wait for hours to get through. It's quite the process. Then the plant ends up creating piles on the ground. Today was Sunday so there were no trucks or anything working, so we thought it would be a great day to go check out these beans. Ok, so it's more me that wanted to check them out, but Jayden, Mike and Stewie were ready for a walk. There are two piles this big.

Stewie tried to jump in, but sank a little bit and I think that startled him. Jayden looks so little next to this gigantic pile.
He thought it was fun to run and jump in. Perfect running pose, huh?

And in he goes!

Jayden dug into the big pile.

He tried to climb higher, but with the beans being so light, he didn't get anywhere. We knew he wouldn't, but it was cute to watch.

He pulled handfuls out to sprinkle on top.

I told him I was going to pick him up and throw him in, so I did. He laughed and wanted to do it again. Once was enough.

Looking from the bottom up!

It's been a quiet weekend around here since five of the kids are gone. They'll be home again tomorrow though and then another week begins on Tuesday!

blowing a nose

Me: Give me a topic to blog about.
Him: I don't know.
Me: Just name something.
Him: Blowing Jayden's nose

I think I should own stock in Kleenex or Puffs because I buy them by the truck load huge cases and it seems we still never have enough. Seriously, I buy at least 6 boxes at a time and lately, Jayden's been going through a box on his own a day! Every minute he is bringing me a tissue to wipe his nose.

I've been trying to teach him how to blow his nose because usually we just wipe it away. I can hear it needs to be blown. So I tell him to blow out his nose. I've been thinking he's doing that, but my husband says he's actually sucking in. To make it funnier, I sit here and make animated faces while blowing air out my nose to try to teach him how to blow. It must look silly because Jayden always smiles and giggles. Well I don't want to actually blow crap out my nose when I'm not using a tissue!

I guess until he gets it, I'll keep showing him and trying to teach him how to blow his nose. In the meantime, I'll keep wiping as he brings me tissues.