Allow me to introduce...

The new family pics.

Brought to you courtesy of Robyn, one of my best besties.

Grant D

This delicious little man is my Best Boy.

Elsie Girl

She is the sweetest girl who ever did live.
And I'm really not kidding about that.

Goose

I love this crazy girl.
She is entertainment nearly nonstop.

Audz

Did I blink?
Because someone switched my little lady in for this all grown up model.

Adam

Not totally sure where we would be without this big fella.
He is a huge help, and a huge tease.


Me and Mikey

Life has thrown us a few curve balls in the last couple of years,
but me and this guy will conquer the world together.
Some day.
Okay, maybe not the world.
But our small little corner of it.

Because, really, any one that can make me laugh like this
on a regular basis,
after everything we have been through,
is a keeper.

Thank You Robyn.

I love them.

The Day.

• This morning I got up and ran three miles.
• This morning three and a half hours before I got up to run three miles I moved myself to the couch to avoid sleeping next to a chain saw like sound coming from the other side of the bed.
  
• This morning after getting the children off to school I straightened up my already fairly clean house.
• This morning I started some laundry so as to avoid being buried alive by laundry come Monday morning. The last load is still waiting patiently in the dryer for me to fold it.
  
• This morning I went to the temple with my visiting teaching ladies.
• This morning I wondered when I would be old enough to be a temple worker. It seems like something I would love to do.
• This morning I was doing a little people watching while waiting for my visiting teaching ladies, I also wondered when I would be old enough to wear a dress with sneaker type shoes and black pantyhose and feel okay about it. Oddly enough, it also seems like something I would like to do.
  
• Today I went to Walmart to do my once a week what-do-we-need-to-get-by-until-next-week-? shopping. Walmart was crazy busy.
• Today I sent my two big boys off for the annual scout trip to the air show in Vegas.
  
• Tonight for dinner my children had cold cereal while I made a pan of brownies.
  
• Tonight warm brownies and milk are what I had for dinner.
• Tonight Grant was disgustingly filthy dirty, I put him in a bubble bath and just let the bubbles do the work for me.
• Tonight I opted to not put the youngest to bed. Grant fell asleep watching a movie.
• Tonight the girls all went to bed right around the ten o'clock hour. (VERY, VERY LATE for our standards.)
• Tonight I should have been working on a sharing time for Sunday. Instead I watched the Biggest Loser on hulu, while eating warm brownies and milk.
• Tonight I ate WAY too many brownies.
  
• Tonight I am wondering why I am writing down such randomness.
• Right now I am thinking it is time to call it a night.
  

The Chart

Here you go, Bobbi.
Here is my job chart.
Really, it's nothing special.
I have tried many a different way to divide up the chores.
This is my favorite BY FAR.
Everyone is in charge of a room for an entire week.
Some are easier and less work than others, but we switch so it doesn't really matter.
Grant is a floater and helps who ever strikes his fancy at the moment.
The kitchen ultimately is mine, but we take turns doing the dishes.
Everyone is responsible for their own bedrooms.
I haven't had to function so efficiently this year, last year when I was doing day care full time + two other part time gigs--it was a must to have everyone pitch in.

So all of this is contingent, of course, to when I am really feeling my inner task masterness.

Keep the Commandments.

A few years back (like 5+ years) me and my beloved decided we needed to set some simple guidelines for our children to follow.
Being the creative, fun loving parents that we are, we decided to call them the "Family Commandments" and posted them prominently on the fridge.


As with everything every good parents does, it was very well received at first, but after time lost a little pizazz and the newness factor--eventually it was taken down and forgotten about.

Forgotten about, until the other day when I was searching the computer looking for my trusty job chart.

(Yes, I will admit that it is November and I am just getting the 'school time job chart' back up. What can I say?? I REALLY like doing the work myself when I am sans children. Yes, yes, I know, I know--how will they learn if I don't give them the opportunity?.... I will now go hang my head in shame.)

So, where was I?
Oh yes, the job chart.
I found the job chart in a file and also ran across the good old "Family Commandments". I thought to myself, Self- that was a great idea you and Mikey had all those years ago--you should print it out and post it again.
So that's what I did.See? Right down there, bottom left on the fridge.

Right there under the job chart for all to see.
What I didn't account for are the older children I am now housing...

Children that would leave notes such as this:
And just in case you can't read it, let's get a close up, shall we??

Bunch'a smart ankles!

Halloweenfest- 2010.

One day of Halloweening is plenty for me.

This year we celebrated for a full week.
And I do mean FULL.
Yep, I'm really good with the fact that it
lands on a Monday next year and
we can just party our little hearts out all in one day.

So, here we go-
The Halloweenie Mother's recap...
(and let's face it, who am i kidding?
i'll say it loud and proud.
i really am a
halloweenie mother)

We started out the week with the traditional Monday
before Halloween pumpkin carving FHE.
This year my normally pumpkin carving loving husband
was not feeling the groove so much.
And definitely not finding the time to help carve 5 pumpkins.
So we opted for a
Girl's pumpkin
and a
Boy's pumpkin

Grant does a great scary pumpkin impersonation, btw.

As per any good Halloweenie mother's standards,
costumes were what ever you decide you want to be.
(...and we can dig up around the house and out of the Halloween box)

This year we had an interesting mix...

Grant.
Who celebrated
preschool and nieghborhood party #1
as a pumpkin.

Who,
after destroying said pumpkin costume at
preschool and neighborhood party #1,
then decided to be a bird.

And a darling little bird he was, indeed.
Until, of course, we attended the elementary school
costume parade
(which equals an hour of hard play time
on the playground equipment for the boy)
and neighborhood party #2.
By this point, well, let's just say the darling
little bird boy had done a bit of molting.
No worries!
On to our last costume of the season,
the trick or treating costume,
costume number three.
A ghost.
(see how that Halloween box just keeps giving?)
Umm, ya- I couldn't get a half decent picture of him.
He was very into character.

Elsie.
Elsie's costume was also a work in progress over the course of a few days.
Initially she wanted to be a vampire.
Then she wanted to be a vampire / prisoner.
But, in the end she just couldn't hide her true colors,
added a purse and some shades,
and became a vampire / prisoner / super model.


Lucy.
Goose's costume was a revival from last year.
Well, sort of.
She was an old lady last year.
She wanted to be an old lady again,
but since that's just crazy to repeat like that
she decided to mix it up a bit...
She told me she wanted to be
Ethel from I Love Lucy.
I told her I wasn't sure how to make that work.
NO WORRIES, she says to me,
I'll just make a sign.
I love the fact that
a) she never considered asking for a ride to school
and
b) she gave me much entertainment watching my
little old lady daughter ride down the street.

This next picture has nothing to do with Halloween.
It just makes me smile.
It's from Red Ribbon week,
Crazy hair and hat day.

Audrey.
Audz decided some time ago that she wanted to be a secret agent.
This was quite possibly the easiest costume ever.
She was a real trooper and took Lucy and her friend trick or treating.
Wow, I almost forgot night two of Halloween week...
Audrey's Orchestra Halloween Recital.
Another FULL night.

She's in there somewhere.
(Please, try to control your jealousy over me
and my amazing camera.)

Adam.
Adam talked his dad into driving down to Partyland Thursday
night on their way home from work.
He picked up this amazing wig and created a costume.
It was lovely.
Really.

But, Adam's favorite part of Halloween was this...

Sitting on the porch all night and freaking people out.
It was lovely.
Really.

Last, but certainly not least...
Mike.
He was clearly exhausted and must have been slightly
delirious because he put on this little number to take the kiddies
trick or treating.

Here's a little Mikey trivia for you..
The last time Mike wore that coat on Halloween
was 17 years ago,
the Howl at USU,
he went as a flasher,
he was
hoping to run into a little lady he had recently met,
someone we all know and love,
a certain
farm girl.
;o)

There.
Now, how's that?
Do you feel as worn out just reading
about it as I did after living it?

So long, Halloweenfest Week!!

The Delmonte Factor.

Here's just a little something I've been thinking about.....

Way back when--way, way back in the day--back in the
high school summer days I had a job.
My first "real job", in fact.

*THERE ARE A COUPLE OF THINGS THAT
I WOULD LIKE TO MENTION RIGHT HERE*

#1: While this was my first 'pay check job' I want NO ONE under and illusions that it was my first working experience...farmgirl's the name,remember?
Work & Me, well, we've never been strangers.
#2: As a youngster I could of been the poster child for picky eaters. No, really. 97% of what I survived on was treats and breads. Oddly enough one of the few vegetables I ate (and really enjoyed) was canned green beans.

So, about this first real job- it was at the Delmonte plant working in the green beans.
I worked there for three summers.
Three summers, ten hour shifts.
That adds up to a whole lot-o-time spent at Delmonte.
I actually liked it there.
Much fun was enjoyed.
But the smell....
The smell still remains, lingers deep within the olfactory memory tissues.
All these years later, open up that can and
I am right back at the belts sorting through the beans, at the cookers sorting through the beans, at the forklift driving the pallets of beans, in the lab doing quality control on the beans---just like it was yesterday.
You know what happened?
I can't stand canned green beans!
Clearly having far too much exposure to something I really enjoyed the taste of ruined it for me.
Even though my memories of working there are positive I still CANNOT stomach canned green beans.

So,
My question/quandary is this....
Why does this not work for sweets?
My exposure is vastly more than that of the green beans.
How come I can eat and eat and eat those dag-um treats
and still go back for more?
Certainly I have had more sweets than any normal person.
And yet, I rarely seem to tire of them.

Kinda makes ya go
HHmmmmm?