Craft #7: Glass Etching $1

Never loose a casserole dish again or make a wonderful gift for someone. You can also fill the casserole dish with a recipe and ingredients for an even better gift!! You Will Need to Bring a Casserole Dish (specify size) and gloves (check with med and dental students). Warning - the Etch Cream states that some Pyrex is not etchable - I etched mine fine, but just so you know. Please select a font in your comment and type the name you want etched (and remember you will be cutting your name out with an exacto knife, simpler might be best).Picture from http://happyvalleyquilter.blogspot.com/

A Week of Halloween, Day 7

Day 7 - Fri. October 31 - HALLOWEEN!!

We finished off our week of Halloween by inviting some friends over for Dinner and a Movie. For dinner we enjoyed (if you have a weak stomach you might want to skip the menu!!):
Crunchy Worms topped with Boiled Maggots and smothered in Troll Snot with a side of Stinging Nettle and Curdled Bat Blood. Miscellaneous toppings to enjoy were Basilisk Venom, Chicken Gizzard, Cow Heart, Dragon Scales, Blackened Bat Eyes, Dandruff, Goblin Boogers, and Cobwebs. It was very delicious and I think everyone was stuffed at the end. Before we enjoyed dessert the boys tired the crickettes and larvets - yes REAL ONES!!! We washed it all down with Pumpkin Cookies, Witches Brew and Ghost Vomit.

The boys all helped to make the Witches Brew (sorry, I couldn't make the brew and snap pictures at the same time). We learned some interesting facts: 1) ghosts will escape not matter how hard you try to keep them in, and 2) Dehydrated Northern Dragon Spit when added to Ghost Vomit will explode out of the bowl - I guess fire and ice don't mix!!!!

We then rolled ourselves in front of the TV to watch a Halloween classic - Ichabod Crane or the Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Disney. It was lots of fun and I think we have created a new tradition.

A Week of Halloween, Day 5

Day 5 - October 29

Jayce's School Party!!! The school sent home a letter describing what they wanted for the party. They wanted the children to dress up like their favorite book character. Great, I now need to come up with another Halloween costume!! Jayce wanted to dress up like Jack from the Magic Tree House books - if you are not familiar, he is a boy who always has his backpack and glasses - so he looks like an every day kid. I told him we would have to keep thinking. I wanted to be lazy and not really do much for this costume. He has all his cowboy stuff, but he has dressed up as a cowboy for two Halloween's (one was a dead cowboy!!). Amanda, told me to do the cowboy thing, there has to be some cowboy character - and then it dawned on me. Jack from the Magic Tree House travels through time to different places, I am sure he has been to the West. Sure enough, he had. So Jayce donned his Cowboy gear and added a pair of glasses. Looks just like Jack!!!

I also volunteered to bring a treat. I turned to good ol' Martha Stewart for a yummy Halloween treat. I think they turned out cute. His teachers said they were a big hit. I dipped pears and apples in white chocolate. The pears are skulls and the apples jack-o-lanterns!!

A Week of Halloween!! Day 3

Day 2 - Mon. October 27 - The Package Arrives
My Mom has been enjoying having grandsons and their love for all things creepy and she satisfies their creepy craving with a much anticipated Halloween package every year. This year was so cool. The box contained a "modern" cauldron, a recipe, and miscellaneous ingredients for concocting Witches Brew.
Some background information on this one. I come from a family of all girls (6) and my mother comes from a family of all girls (well 6 girls and the baby is a boy - and we think he is the greatest), her older sister had all girls (7), and the trend has in general continued with girls out numbering the boys even to the third generation. So as you can imagine all girls = a coven of witches. I am positive that had we lived during the days of the witch hunts our family would have been burned at the stake, how else could you get all (mostly) girls for three generations. We also have are very own family spell book, honest!! So I am sure the recipe has been handed down for generations.

Oh, You think you want the recipe:
Witches Brew (from the Kitchen of the Wicked Witch of the West)
Ingredients:
1 vile LeRoy Browns Blood
1 package Freeze Dried Ghost
2.5 gallons H2O
2.5 lbs. Dry Fog

Stir Ghost into H2O until invisible. Add vile of LeRoy Browns Blood for flavor. Add Dry Fog till fizzy. Lightly cover so Ghost do not escape. When concoction is ready add a little pinch of this or that from additional viles to make your own magic.
What is in the other viles you ask: Ogre Pee, Fairy Dust, Spider Eyes, Spider Hearts, Ground Witches Bones, Crushed Skulls, Diced Newt Tail, Moth Cocoons, Dehydrated Northen Dragon Spit, Mice Poop, and Goblin Fingernails. Just the usual ingredients laying about a witches kitchen.

She also sent Sour Cream and Onion Crickettes and Cheddar Cheese Larvets (Oh, Yes the are Real!!!!) No witch has yet to been seen eating one, however the Male slaves have all tried them. The crickettes supposedly taste like a potato chip, the larvets on the other hand have a gross after taste and it is like having the popcorn kernel shells stuck in your teeth. Who tried them? Jason, Jayce (spit out the larvet), Grahm (didn't try the crickette), Jack Thorpe (said Yum after eating the larvet, didn't try the crickette - yet), and Greg Godfrey. Way to go boys - Fear Factor Here We Come!!! She topped off the package with a new CD with even more fun Halloween songs - the CD included titles like Thriller, LeRoy Brown, Big Jim Walker, Little Red Riding Hood, Monster Mash, Ghostbuster, Purple People Eater, etc... (I am sure I wrote down a title wrong - sorry).

A Week Of Halloween!! Day 1

I know I should not complain about Halloween, especially since I actually like all of the hoopla. Kids just make it hard, they are "fun suckers". Generally I have to dress them up several times, but this year we didn't do all of it. In a way I feel guilty, but I also think they might have had more fun this year. Halloween did of course last longer than its designated day.

Day 1 - Sat. October 25 - Trunk-Or-Treat

The primary provided carnival games for the kids at 1pm. We were late (Jayce had a soccer game at 11am and I was running solo - Jason has his Mannekin Exam {I know sounds fun, hehe!!}). We made it in time to play a few games and visit before Trunk-Or-Treating started. Jayce dressed up as Fire (he kept running around and pretending to burn everything and everyone). Grahm was dressed up as Water (he ran around getting everyone wet or putting out all of Jayce's fires). They looked cool and they thought they looked cool. They managed to fill their buckets to the brim (Jayce I think ended up with twice as much candy as Grahm). We came home and Grahm had a fever of 103 -yikes!!

Enjoying the first cup of Hot Cocoa of the year!!!

Sometimes Life Stinks!!

1. Sometimes Life Stinks!!! This is not me complaining, I just wanted to share an experience.

Jason is busy studying and finishing up some projects for school (He has two big tests Nov 11, 12, and 13 - all day), so he is busy. I decided I needed to get some errands done without him, usually we all go together.

1. Monday as soon as I picked up Jayce from school we headed to JoAnns to pick out fabric for jammies and get some trim for Charlottes coat. We then stopped at ToysRUs to get some fish for Grahm's Halloween costume - it is now past dinner time the kids are tired and I am sure you can imagine that they were not angels in the fabric store. I was supposed to go grocery shopping too - it didn't happen.

Tuesday after I picked up Jayce from school we headed to Barthel Fruit Farm to pick apples for applesauce (Yummy!!!). Then we went to the grocery store this took until 7:00 - with driving time. To put it mildly I was very done (I think there is a good reason that I am blessed to not have hormonal fluctuations until my babies are nearing a year old). So there I am in the grocery store parking lot, the groceries are loaded, and the kids all safely buckled (thinking mom is so mean). As I am walking my cart to the cart return I have a TV flash (you know the TV series Without a Trace? In the shows they always show a person going from point A to point B and they disappear before they get to point B). So I walk my cart to the return and then I disappear. I realize that I could disappear right now and nobody would know. I could leave all the responsibility and frustrations of being a mother behind and go and be me. As soon as the thought was there I was all ready saying no way. I would miss all the good stuff, the smiles and laughs, the cute way they do things. How can you love the good times if you never experience the hard times. I could never leave them. What an empowering realization that I am not here at this moment just out of obligation (because I do believe that you are obligated to those cute little people), but because this is exactly where I want to be. I love being a Mom, even in those moments when you want to quit (well only for 5 minutes and only if Dad is there, and, and...even when we take a break we don't!).

I turned around and could barely make out 3 sets of big eyes watching and anxiously waiting for my return. No, I could never leave them. Then I climbed into the car and cried because I needed a break and Jason was not available (I couldn't call him and hear "I Love You" - he doesn't have service in the Sim Lab, I couldn't go and get a hug - the doors are locked at 5pm). After a few moments I drove away, we picked up some Wendy's (it was 7:30 - poor kiddos) and we smiled, laughed and hugged and then they went to bed.

I love them so much, they make each day a little bit of heaven!!!

A Grahm!!

Well the weather has gotten colder and that means cold hands and fingers. Grahm went to use the restroom and decided that cold fingers are not a good thing. He grabbed some toilet paper and folded it to provide some insulation. I was nervous that this would result in me cleaning the floor, his pants, the wall and or the back of the toilet. I was wrong, Grahm knows how to solve a problem!!! I just had to share, I thought it was so funny.

Windows

It has been a 1.5 years since I last had my windows squeaky clean. It was the summer of '07, I had a bit of a belly (Charlotte) and it took me 2 entire days to get them all done. That is why that fall (a big belly) I said they could wait and then the next spring/summer I said not with a little baby. I finally knuckled down (I made Jason promise to help one Saturday) to get it done.

Cleaning windows in this old house is no easy job (no, I am not extremely slow). My windows consist of two exterior storm sashes and two interior sashes (the upper sash is true divided light = lots of little windows). Jason opted to clean the storms and screens. I handed him a bucket of water and vinegar, a sponge, a squeegee and a roll of paper towels. He removed all of the main level storms and took them out back. I was in charge of the interior windows, so I armed myself with all the same gear as Jason. We got really going about 10 am and finished up around 7 pm. I spent the majority of my time on the ladder cleaning the second story windows (by the way the windows are about 20' off the ground and the 24' ladder would only allow me to barely reach the upper sashes -SCARRY!!)

Lets count up the totals:

Main Level: 15 windows, 3 doors, and 2 storms doors

Upper Level: 8 windows, 1 door, and 1 storm door

Attic: 4 windows

Total Storm Sashes cleaned: 48 window sashes, double sided = 92 (skipped the attic storms, but down stairs storm door has two sashes)

Total Divided Light Sashes: 25, double sided = 46 (I did not clean the outside of the attic)

Total Solid Sashes: 29, double sided = 46 (I did not clean the outside of the attic)

Doors: 5, double sided = 10

Grand Total 194 pieces of glass cleaned (does not count individual panes of the divided light)

Jason says our next home will have no windows! I told him in the next house he will have to afford a window cleaner if he doesn't want to help!!

I CAN SEE!!!

The Silent Gift

Motherhood can be so baffling at times. Things I would not have thought of before I think of. I have been spending lots of time trying to get all the crafts ready for Super Saturday sign ups. So I have been staying up late getting the prototypes completed, putting off Grahm's Birthday until Sunday when I wont work on crafts and I can focus on him. (Thanks to Heavenly Father for seeing the need for a Sabbath Day). It is Midnightish Saturday and we are celebrating Grahm's Birthday the next day. I have hung paper flag banners in the kitchen to make it seem more festive, but it just does not seem right. Then it hits me, I always clean my house for important days. I have not cleaned the house! So what, Grahm will not notice, he will not care if the floors have not been vacuumed or the dusting undone. He will be focused on his new toys and cake!! But I will notice and not because its messy, but because I am saying this day is not important enough to warrant a clean house. Oh, No. This will not do, his day is more important than craft night, more important than a friend stopping by for a play date. So I cleaned my house until 3 am, my silent gift. The next day did Grahm notice the mopped floors, the polished refrigerator, nope and he didn't need to. But as I played and celebrated, my house silently whispered "You matter, Your Birthday matters, Happy Birthday Grahm!!"

Grahm's Birthday

Happy Birthday!! WOW You are 4 years old. We drug your Birthday out Thursday thru Sunday. We let you open some clothes from Grammy, they are super cute and you love the belt. On Saturday morning we let you open one gift- Popeye the Sailor Man DVD. On Saturday we went shopping with your Birthday money, only to find out it didn't work when we got home. We let you open your presents Sunday morning.


You received a remote control Spider, batman and batmobile, and Horton Hears a Who.
On Sunday we had your Birthday dinner. You picked Mashed Potatoes (I had to coax you to pick something to go with them, especially something that made gravy - and then you didn't even eat them), Pork Roast, Spinach (You have been watching lots of Popeye), and a salad. After watching conference we had the Godfrey's over for cake and ice cream.

Daxton gave you some rubber stamps and connect four game.
This year you wanted cupcakes (your favorite and you used to call them Muff Cakes) and skeletons. Your Dad and I figured it out for you. When we sang Happy Birthday I wished we had the movie camera out, I have never seen you so excited about something. It was a quiet excited, you didn't bounce around - I think you were so excited you didn't even know what to do.



I love you and I am so proud of you. You can always make me smile and you are such a big help with Charlotte. Thank you for coming to our family.