Halloween is Coming!

Amazed is a Halloween junky (actually I'm pretty sure she loves ALL holidays) and has a lot of really fun ideas for Halloween on her blog. Pumpkins and witches and cupcakes. I'm thinking the cupcakes are all just too cute. I decorate a little bit at my house. Mostly stuff that I've made at one relief society activity or another. Some of the stuff I have purchased but not much. I'll admit right here that I'm kind of cheap. My previous shopping partner was probably more frugal than I am so there were years that I would have never bought anything just because I thought it was too cute. Now I tend to wander out in to the world with my neighbor. I should say that a lot of my decorating is done with my mom - but she also does some of the purchasing so it allows me to still be cheap. But now with my neighbor I don't see her buying me stuff for my house but she sure helps me spend my own money. We were at Kirklands Home store and I saw the candy corn/pumpkin girl and we both thought she was really cute. Being the frugal girl I am I went home printed off a coupon and went back a few days later. When I was told that they only had the two on display and they wouldn't get any more halloween stuff I knew she had to come home with me. My only thought now is wondering where she will live after halloween is over.

The Stay at Home Mom

I am a stay at home mom. My kids are all in school, in fact my youngest is in 2nd grade so she's been in school for a while. I am still a stay at home mom. I have my degree in English and before we moved to Arizona I taught 7th grade English and Utah History. We then moved to England and I dabbled in working. I was a substitute teacher and I worked in the Education center on the base. Now we're back to Arizona and I'm back to not working. I don't think I've ever had another stay at home mom ask me what I do all day but I have had a few others wonder.

Today was a prime example of why I don't work. I spent the morning gathering things my husband needed in the colder weather, as well as a colder lab at work, while he's on a business trip. I then drove those items in to town to have the shipping guy at work mail them to him. While running this errand Jackson called to tell me that basketball starts TODAY and he needed his shoes and clothes for after school.

Off to Target I went as he wore his tennis shoes in the river camping with the scouts and he didn't really have the appropriate attire for basketball - he needs new shorts. Easy enough if I had remembered which child I was shopping for and didn't bring home shoes 2 sizes too small. I will exchange them tonight when I need to go back that direction.

Then once I returned home I had to call the guitar teacher. A 3:30 lesson time won't work when the basketball player doesn't get home until after 4:30. Rescheduling to 5:30 on Wednesday was the option.

After I pick up the younger two from school I'll take Jackson's things to him at his school.

I'm not sure how I would manage this all if I did work. And I'm really not sure who made up the term STAY AT HOME mom because I'm hardly ever home.

Hiking is Fun?

Since Stew is out of town I'm doing double duty with the kids. Today Jared had a hike with the Webelos and the 11 year olds and a parent was "encouraged" to come. Since Jackson also wanted to hike that left Jordan. I suppose I could have put some effort in to finding her some place to hang out for the morning but sometime during the week a little "family hike" sounded like fun. We loaded up the backpack and met everyone at the church. 27 hikers - 25 men/boys - and then me and Jordan. At one point I thought about backing out and one of the dads even gave me the option but nope - we're going to hike. At 2.8 miles I wondered if this was really a good idea. At 4.8 miles I wasn't sure I was actually going to make it as it only got hotter this morning. But .6 miles later we were in the car with the A/C going full blast and headed to McDonalds. Sounds like a successful morning...now if we only had the energy to get some chores done. Oh well.

-And that is a picture of a tarantula we came across on our hike. Some boys were disappointed we didn't see any snakes - I was not.

Wonderful Do Nothing Day

Today is a do nothing day. I've had days and days of this vacation running around. Not today. Today it is 11:30 and I'm still in my jammies. The kids are up and dressed and playing Clue. I did get dressed enough to let the garage door repairman in the garage to fix the chain but that has been my big activity of the day so far. The kids don't even seem to care that we're not going anywhere, that nobody is coming over. They are probably as worn out and ready for a do nothing day as I am.

Crazy Mom Life

I'm in the midst of a crazy mom life. Actually I'm in the beginning of 5 weeks of craziness. My husband just left for a 5 week work trip. That's 5 weeks of me being a single mom. I saw a blog the other day where the girl took pictures of all of her activities during a day - I'm not sure my blog has enough room for that some days. Just today my schedule was this:

Leave house at 9am for a 10am allergy appointment for Jared.
Sit in waiting room for 40 minutes.
After 2 1/2 hours at the allergist (including waiting room time) we left at 12:30. This was after Jared was poked and prodded and covered with welts. Apparantly it's easier to say what he ISN'T allergic to than to list those things he is allergic to.
Our next stop was Chuck E Cheese because the boy deserved it and we were all hungry and needed a fun break.
Run home and get Jordan changed for Gymnastics at 4:00
Organize a ride for Jared to scouts at 4:30.
That's where we are now - so at 5 we will be done with gymnastics and head over to pick up Jared from scouts.
We will be home for an hour and a half and Jackson will be off to scouts/mutual at the church. I was just called to give another child a ride because her husband is out of town. I laughed to myself - said I would pick him up - no problem.
At 8:30 I will have to pick up the boys and bring them home again.
Hopefully around 9:30 all kids will be in bed and I can chill for a bit.

Of course that will last for hours longer as my chilling will turn in to late night tv viewing because when the husband is gone it takes me much longer to fall asleep.

And then tomorrow - we can do it all over again. Just substitute the allergy doctor for the orthodontist and one activity for another and I'm sure I'll be just as tired come 9:30.

If you're wondering - the kids are out of school for fall break - they will go back on Monday and then my crazy life will be strictly an afterschool affair. I may just nap all day while they're gone.

Back to Blogging - or trying

I actually read some blogs today. The strange thing is that I read blogs of people I actually know. If you look at my list of favorite blogs I don't actually know any of those people. I have read and followed and even retold stories of blogs I have read but I didn't know anyone that actually blogged. And I wasn't sure I wanted anyone I know reading what I blog. Like a secret journal that can be read by people you don't know. It seems safe. Now I'm thinking that I might want to branch out. That I might want to read those other blogs - that I might want to be part of that group. Then I wonder - what if those girls don't want me reading their blogs. Is there a rule about reading the blogs of people you actually know? I got the one blog address from facebook and it snowballed from there. Do I casually comment on something that is written that I relate to? I'm on totally different ground. I'll let you know how it all works out.

You Can't Pick Your Family...

Actually you can pick your family when it comes to the inlaws but it doesn't really work very well. When I met my husband and consequently his family I thought they were all sane. I remember sitting in the living room while we all enjoyed a Buster Bar from Dairy Queen...good times. I also remember the day I got married when my mother in law said, "Well, now it's a done deal we can all quit pretending we're people that we aren't." At the time I thought it was a joke. 16 1/2 years later it is certainly no joke. I have a brother in law and his family and then a sister in law and her family that are all normal. And then there are the mother/father in law and the oldest brother and his family. Sometimes you have to really wonder how people end up like they do when they come from the same parents.

You may wonder what spurred this blog. My oldest son is 12 and in our church this is a pretty big age so the events that occur has brought in quite a few family members. I'm pretty sure that when they are all on "my turf" their quirkiness shows 10fold. Fortunately for me part of their craziness also includes them driving many miles to be here only to turn around as quickly as they can to head back.