My CRAPPY day

So my Halloween started out fantastic. Shea and I slept in, then made toast, eggs and bacon for daddy and then went to the library for story time. It was great. Then we went to Target to get some more Halloween candy as "the Dad tax" is apparently higher in California than it was in Utah and most of the candy I bought a few days ago was gone. That's when it started to go downhill. Sometime in the 30 minutes I was in the store, my wallet and checkbook were stolen out of my purse, which was sitting in the cart with Shea. So I spent the rest of the day at the police station making a report and then calling everywhere canceling credit cards and all that crap. UUGGHH. It's the most enormous hassle!!!!! I just got that California DL, brand new insurance cards, all my gift cards, etc. etc. etc. And I'm mad!! It's so much work and inconvenience! What makes someone think they have the right to reach in your cart, your purse and take your wallet? It ticks me off sooo bad! I would have just given you the crappy $26 bucks. So ladies, don't turn your backs on your shopping carts EVER!

We did have fun trick or treating later though. Napoleon was a bit hit!! Although, that candy I had to go to Target to get... we got 1 trick or treater!!! Course, that's because we both went out with Shea, but still, the irony. Aggh.

There's a good boy.

I'm convinced that they really do hear and internalize virtually everything we say to them, and you don't realize until you hear your exact words parroted back to you. Yesterday I asked Shea not to stand on the couch. He looked at me for a minute and didn't get down. So I asked him again, still nothing. I gave him the "mom look" and started to walk over. As soon as I started moving he jumped down and said, "There's a good boy!"

Time Out

So we came home this afternoon from a little walk on the beach and I walked in Shea's room to run a bath and encountered this....




In case you can't tell what this is, it's Shea's time out wall. When he's naughty, which thankfully is still pretty rare, we sit him here where he looks at the wall and is not allowed to talk or play for 2 minutes. Apparently this has really made an impact on him, as he's now putting his Tiggers in time out! I looked at Tigger, and trying not to laugh, said, "Uh oh Shea, what happened?" He looked at me and said, "Tigger was being naughty mommy, so I put him in time out. But Tigger was talking in time out, so he had to stay longer." Then he loving picked up Tigger, gave him hugs and kisses and told him he loved him. The things they pick up!!

THE costume 2007!

Ok, I have to say, I am more proud of this baby than I was of Fat Elvis and the Smurf combined! After three straight days, 16 hours and more money than I expected, my masterpiece...
NAPOLEON

is complete!!!

Shea loves it and can't wait to be Napoleon "the nice soldier." We think the fact that we're calling him the nice soldier is pretty funny considering the Spanish and the Russians and the British and the Germans and all the rest of the countries he robbed, plundered and conquered didn't think so. But hey, I guess you have to do what you have to do so your 2 year old, the ruthless dictator, won't go around hitting all his friends with his sword. :-)



I made all of it except the tee-shirt (and I have to give props to Chris who is the hat designing master! His design was genius, totally true to the original and easy for me to make!) but the jacket is the best!

Halloween Cookies

Okay so I'm a pretty good cook, but I DO NOT bake. I'm not sure what it is I hate so much about making treats, I just don't like it. Especially cookies, you make the dough and then you have to stand there for hours cooking batch after batch. Ughh! So, for the first time in Shea's life we made sugar cookies together. It was soooo much fun!!! He loved it! He had flour up to his eyeballs, but he loved making our ghosty ghosts, bats, witches and pumpkins. They even tasted yummy!

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!

Last Monday we went to a pumpkin farm with our friends the Moore's. We had sooo much fun! It even felt like fall with a nip in the air and everything. We had a delicious picnic lunch of baguettes, French cheeses and grapes then we did a tractor ride, saw all the animals, played on trains and hay stacks and got to pick pumpkins and gourds for the house. We had such a fun day, especially Shea!!

My handsome man with his pumpkins.

Shea got to ride Rosebud all by himself!

Playing on a train with his friend Henry

Checking out the chickens with daddy

King of the hay!

Totally lost in the corn maze

Follow the Prophet

I feel so GREAT right now!!! For the first time in my adult life I have Food Storage!!!! Not only do I have all the fun, yummies from couponing that my family will bless me for having hoarded were there to be an emergency, but I now have a one month supply of all the life sustaining necessities for my family. It's only one month, but it's a start. And, even better, I know how to use all that wheat, potato pearls, rice, beans etc. Our ward RULES. They do ward canning day every six months where you just sign up, they bring all the stuff to our community center and we go can our own stuff for our families. I can not even tell you the security these 25 silver beauties have given me. Bring on the earthquakes (just don't let the disaster last longer than a month!) We live in a tiny apartment, but we decided that can't be an excuse any longer. I'm pretty sure I couldn't fit a year's supply in here but I'm going to work up to my 3 month that's for sure. And it feels GREAT!!

(Anybody want to swap food storage recipes? I know how to make delicious fries from potato pearls, 100% wheat chicken nuggets - that no kidding - actually taste dang good, and a kick-butt apple cobbler from the apples, oats and sugar!)

uhuh uhuh

So we're sitting there at lunch today and just as I'm about to give Shea a big, yummy, juicy bite of ketchup smeared hot dog he sings, "That's the way, uhuh uhuh, I like it!" Chris and I could not even contain ourselves. Where do they get this stuff???? I can not even imagine where he heard that song, but he had it down, complete with the uhuh uhuh and everything.

Couponing Rules!!

20 boxes of regular sized name brand cereal
4 boxes granola bars
10 boxes fruit snacks
2 boxes toaster strudels
4 packages oreida fries, tots & roasted potatoes

Total before sale and coupons you ask ?????
$157.12
What did I pay ?????
$36.59

Couponing is TOTALLY worth it on days like these!! (And I only had 2 weeks worth of coupons, oh the great deals I could have gotten if I'd started back into couponing earlier!! Let that be a lesson to us all.) :-)

Footprints

My friend Valerie was visiting from France for the weekend and we took her to the beach. Chris was carrying Shea on the way back to the car. We'd walked a little way when Shea announced to us that "Mommy's making peanuts!!!" I couldn't figure out what he was talking about until I looked behind me. Sure enough, my sandal prints looked just like peanuts in the shell. Funny boy!!