Happy Halloween!

Yea for Halloween! Normally I'm not big on Halloween. We haven't even carved pumpkins...I know, shame on me but I find it disgusting. But this year I'm thrilled because my parents are coming to visit for the weekend. Truthfully they are coming to see the kids. I don't blame them the kids really are adorable. But, they'll be here for trick-or-treating...and we're excited!!

Although, I have quite a bit of work ahead of me tonight. Out of all the rooms in the house that I had to organize and put stuff away in ours is the only one not done....go figure. So, I get to find places to put everything in our room tonight and FINISH Samuel's costume. I'm not sure why I haven't done it before now as he's going as a bat and I bought black pants and a black long sleeve shirt and made him a black stocking cap (which he of course can't find and I can't either) and then all I have to do is add the webbing between his body and his arms. It's super simple and yet here it is the night before he needs it and it's not done. Normally I'm not a procrastinator. Oh well, at least I won't be up all night sewing!

I wish you all the best in your trick-or-treating (or trunk-or-treating) adventures on Halloween. Don't eat too much candy!

Schools and such

Ok, I don't understand...what is with parents who send their kids to school and then not support the school? Granted I come from a background of educators, am married to a teacher and at one point before I became a mom was planning on being a teacher. However, I don't understand not supporting the schools and your kids.

I have recently been attending PTO meetings. I figure it's a great way to get to know the principal, teachers and just plain be involved with my kids' education without having to work at the school. (and I don't want the teachers and principal to always be thinking "oh no, here comes Mrs. Mobley again!) It shocked me to find out that only about 4 other parents attend these meetings. (Which is probably why I think I've been nominated to be the PTO co-president...you can all call me madame president now. LOL)

Then, I got a letter inviting me (and I assumed a whole lot of other parents) to a meeting about the state standards and how the school is planning on meeting them. It is an accredidation year for the school district and so the school asked parents to come learn more about what is going on in case the state happens to choose them to see how well informed they are. They even provided daycare! Out of 55 parents that were invited, there were 4 parents that showed up, and 3 of us regularly attend PTO...go figure!

Maybe I'm out of the ordinary, but even if I have to fight Phillip to be quiet during a meeting I'm going to attend. If I don't advocate for my kids and show my support for them and the school who is going to...okay besides Stuart. If I don't show my kids that their education is important why would they think it's important?

Hopefully I haven't offended anyone, I know we are all busy and it's hard to make it to meetings especially with kids in tow. However I don't think I'd be nearly as irritated if the parents in my kids' classes cared about what they did at school and supported them. It's so frustrating to go into the classrooms to volunteer and see what a difference there is between the kids and their learning levels. You really can tell the kids who's parents take the time to work with them, and it makes me so sad to realize that some parents just don't care.

GRRRRR!

The love of my life

Stuart came home from swim practice at approximately 7:20 tonight and I had succeded in having Phillip asleep before he walked in the door...YEA ME!
He had a little silly grin on his face (Stuart, not Phillip) and had his swim gear bundled up in his arms. He gave me a kiss and his silly grin got bigger as he pulled out some ice cream and said "I tried to get you a rose but they didn't have any so I got you this" "this" happens to be ice cream.
He bought weight watchers ice cream because as he said "I was trying to be romantic and be good at the same time."

Who knew ice cream could be romantic? I think he's set a new precident. Although the flowers he bought me 2 weeks ago are still alive and kicking...WOW!

I had a great day today, I had a couple sisters from church over for breakfast and all I had to prepare was a fruit salad. And then I went to a R.S. bread making class. It was fun even though I don't particularly have a problem making bread. (I sure do love my bread machine, although I think I may get a Bosch...they're pretty awesome!) And then the kids and I had a quiet evening at home. The boys played in the bath until they were well "pruned" and KatieJo danced around the house to the music she was singing.

And tomorrow we are trying a new play group that meets at the church on Wednesday mornings and consists of kids (and their mothers) from both wards. Phillip isn't exited yet, but I think it's great and will give us an opportunity to get to know more people. New friends are always good!

My Monday effort

In order to make my Mondays more fun I thought I'd list (so I can come back later and look) my favorite things about Monday.

I LOVE that Phillip is always happy to see me when he wakes up...even on Monday mornings (I also like that he LOVES to cuddle with me when he wakes up).

I LOVE that I can have lunch with Stuart. Yes, we can do that any day; but today we went to the school and took him his lunch.

I LOVE that I can start laundry for the week (yes, it sounds nuts...but I don't typically do laundry on the weekends and so it piles up a little bit with 5 of us).

I LOVE that my house can be clean with KatieJo and Samuel gone at school.

I LOVE that when I pick KatieJo and Samuel up from school that they think it's SOOOOO great to see Mom again!

I LOVE that I can have a quiet time at naptime and check my blog.

Ok, I think that's pretty good....What do you LOVE about Mondays?

I also thought I'd post pictures of our FHE (we do it on Sunday nights since Stuart works on Monday nights coaching swimming). We made halloween pumpkin shaped sugar cookies and read stories.

The kids really enjoyed making the cookies, although they thought it was more fun eating them. Phillip's cookie is the one with the green squiggle. I don't think I mentioned that the kit came with edible eyes. Our pumpkins really came to life! Yum!

Don't you love Stuart's "smile"?

This is a picture of the new color (minus the trim...it hasn't been painted yet). I'm not sure you can see anything really with the sun shining on it, but it is obviously not brown or green.

Samuel says he "hates" it and that he liked the green but will live with it if I paint footballs somewhere on the walls. We'll see how ambitious I am in regards to the football and as for him living with it...he's out of luck if he thinks we're going to change the color!

The boys have been sleeping in KatieJo's room on the floor while their room has been painted and they have enjoyed sleeping on the air mattress (although Phillip takes WAY too long to fall asleep because he is SO excited!). I'm just glad everything is ready for them to sleep in their own beds tonight. Aren't they cute in the picture though?

The microwave

Ok, I have a picture of the microwave and cabinet. If I do say so myself, I think Stuart did a great job (minus after drilling a hole in the side of the cabinet because he was convinced he couldn't mount the cabinet any other way and still be able to plug in the microwave he re-read the directions and found he could have mounted it over to the right more). Oh well, I'll just cover it up with a plant. Yucky, yucky colors!!!

Turns out though that even after priming poop brown and packers green walls you still have to put on 2 coats of light blue paint. So, all I have is beginning pictures of the boys room. Hopefully we'll be done tonight with the painting...but then again maybe not since we're about to go to a Elder's quorum bbq. (We also have to re-arrange the boys room because the "Monkey" formerly known as Phillip has learned how to scale the side of the bunk bed without the ladder and so bunkbeds are being dismantled until he can climb safely!)

Sunny days and family

It's Friday! Which means painting (which didn't happen last weekend and has to happen before next weekeng) will be commencing soon. As well as our new cupboard and microwave that are going over the stove...YEA, more places to put things...our kitchen doesn't exactly have a plethora of storage space as it was meant to be an eat-in kitchen. Since the new microwave will be going under the cabinet our old one will be headed elsewhere which means MORE COUNTER SPACE...WHOOOHOOO!

Sorry, I've been with all 3 kids this morning. They were supposed to have school today until 11:15 with lunch being from 10:30 until they got out of school so we decided it was a waste to send them and so we've been messing around this morning. Stuart got out of school at 12 and so now the kids are napping and we're (Stuart) is working.

Did I mention it's a beautiful sunny day? What more could a person ask?