Looks Like They Worked Out Their Differences

Apparently The Children In China Are Not Just Starving...

So, Nutmeg Jim showed up today. We decided to start decorating for Christmas and he came to see what we were up to. Austin was sooooo excited!

Until he opened the present Nutmeg Jim brought him. Then he promptly burst into tears. He wasn't just sad, he was MAD.

What horrible thing did Nutmeg Jim bring my little adorable child that would cause such a reaction? Underwear? Spiders? Broccoli?

No, Nutmeg Jim had the audacity to bring Austin some flannel sheets, complete with cute little penguins on them. Austin has been stealing my flannel pillow cases for months and begging for a set of sheets of his own since last year. And honestly, between you and me, I thought it was quite an upgrade from the Christmas ornament he usually gets from Nutmeg Jim. (Ally got sheets this year too, which she seemed very satisfied with, and Morgan didn't need sheets so she got a sock monkey hat and key chain.)

After we all recovered from the initial shock of Austin's outburst (and tried quite unsuccessfully to hide our laughter), we asked him what was wrong.

"Sheets are so BORING!" he cried. "I don't want sheets! You can't play with sheets." (Apparently he was expecting some Bakugans, even though I had some he could earn and he was too lazy to do it by learning to tie his shoes or ride a two wheeled bike so we can all go for bike rides together.)

"Besides," he went on, "these aren't new. We already had these." He said he had seen them in the storage room where I had (rather unsuccessfully) hidden them. I patiently explained that Nutmeg Jim must have been using our storage room to store things in too.

"Yeah," Ally said, "that's why they call it a STORAGE room."

Then he got REALLY mad. So mad that it started to make me mad because of how ungrateful he was being.

I had the kids read the note from Nutmeg Jim, which included the usual about keeping their rooms clean and being good because he was going to report back to Santa. This is usually when I have them hold Nutmeg Jim then for a nice, happy picture, but Austin started to punch Nutmeg Jim so we put him up on the tree, out of harms way.

By then I had had enough, so I went to get the sheets and take them back to decide later what I was going to do. But funny thing, Austin was holding the package and trying to open it. I took it away and he started to get upset.

"If you don't want these I'll give them to someone who is cold and will be grateful for them." I said. "Lots of little kids would love to have nice flannel sheets like this."

"I want them!" he said, "I like them. Don't give them to the children in China."

"No you don't want them," I replied, "or you wouldn't have acted like that."

"Yes I do. I like them, I really do!" he said, seeming pretty happy all of a sudden.

So, I told him he needed to apologize to Nutmeg Jim, who was still stuck in the undecorated Christmas tree for his own protection.

Austin picked up Nutmeg Jim, gave him a hug and said "It's okay Nutmeg Jim. I forgive you."


(Later Austin came back and told me he had a warm feeling, so it must be true - forgiveness is a good thing, I guess it doesn't matter if you're the forgiver or the forgivee.)

'Tis the Season

Well, Austin has already hit his annual holiday brattiness phase with a vengeance. His teacher even commented on it, sending home a note to ask me if something is going on at home. I was hoping his monstrous behavior would be reserved for us, the ones who know how rotten he can act at times, but still love him anyway.

Today he hit a new low. He cut most of the hair off of one side of one of the girls' little Kelly dolls that we found when we were cleaning up the playroom for our guests (who are now delayed by a day because one of their kids threw up last night - let's hope if it's contagious they figure it out BEFORE they head our way!). I keep finding more hair stuffed in various odd places. I supposed he thought he'd break up the evidence to make it look less obvious.

The little doll had survived years of use from both of my girls without a hair on her head harmed in any way. Austin had access to her for roughly 14 hours and she looks like she's been attacked by wild savages. Not exactly the look I was hoping for when I pictured my cherubic granddaughters enjoying them in a few years. Sheesh!

Anyway, the icing on the cake came when he denied any responsibility, despite the fact that when I asked him where the scissors ended up he showed me right where they were - in the now hair filled drawer.

I reminded him that this morning when he gave our family prayer he asked Heavenly Father to help us not tell lies. (We have been discussing this at length lately and for good reason.)

Austin looked at me and with a straight face answered back, "Well mom, you know sometimes [when you ask Heavenly Father for something] the answer is no."

Productivity 101

The guests are on their way. There is food to be cooked and baked. A guest room to freshen up. A playroom floor to dig out from under all the miscellaneous toys that are intermixed with each other (and ideally sorted into categories).

Etc., etc., etc......


So, what did I spend my time doing?

Yes, I re-folded and color coordinated my sweaters. You wanna make something of it?


I feel much better now.



(Except for the fact that I still need to cook and clean and.....YIKES!)

Next up, getting rid of those cardboard boxes on the top shelves of our closet. Maybe Christmas Eve would be a good time for that.

Another College Incident

I thought I had already written all the embarrassing college stories, but something reminded me of this one today.

A few friends and I used to study at a certain spot of the USU library most days. We would study and visit and of course, since it was college, try to meet new people. (By the way, did you ever notice that people you barely knew in high school suddenly became your best friends in college because I think we were all just so happy to see a familiar face? Okay, back to the story now...)

One day I was sitting with some of the regulars and someone had brought Oreos. Though they are not my favorite, I ate a few (just to be sociable, I'm sure). We then got back to studying, visiting, whatever we were doing.

Later on, someone else came by - a boy I was somewhat interested in. I visited with him a little, flashing what I thought was a cute smile every once in a while.

It seemed like he left pretty abruptly, and it wasn't until later that either someone told me or I looked in the mirror and saw what he saw; lots and lots of little Oreo pieces were still stuck in my teeth. It looked like what people do to their teeth for Halloween, though it was nowhere near the holidays, I can assure you.

Let's just say he didn't ever ask me out.


(Ooh, that reminds me of another story that I would prefer not to print. A girl's gotta have some secrets, right?)

Happy, Happy, Beautiful Fall!

Okay, so it's really raining cats and dogs today, but I've been meaning to post this for some time. It has truly been a most spectacular autumn this year.

Now look closely at the photo below. Click on it to make it bigger and see if you can see a cute little face peeking out the window on the right side.

If you could hear what he's saying, you would hear, "Mom, let me out! I need to go catch the bus!" Yes, he actually likes school. Another big reason I really, really love fall.

And in other news: We just found a mouse, minus the guts on our welcome mat. You would think that would upset me, but it actually makes me very, very happy! First of all, the mouse is still outside and not in the house (but don't think it didn't make me check the 81 traps I have hidden all over inside the house). And second, that means our cat is not mad at us any more for moving her around the corner and not letting her into the new house and is back to earning her keep!

The New Hot Ticket Items At Our House

I got a package in the mail the other day. Check out what was in it! (And yes, I know my photography skills are quite lacking. Just get over it and click on the photos if you want to see more detail.)

(The quote on the front of the Jesus medallion says "I am with you always" and on the back is the scripture from John 8:12. "I am the light of the world: He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." The back of the Logan Temple medallion says "Establish A House of Prayer, Fasting, Faith, Learning, Glory, Order & God")


A friend of mine from high school and his wife have just started a new business called Cherished Emblems. They are faith based medallions and are pretty nifty. They are really heavy duty and high quality. They are about 1 3/4" round. There will be more information coming up on their website, cherishedemblems.com, this weekend and they also have a facebook page "Cherished Emblems" that shows photos of some of the other medallions. (Actual photos by an actual professional medallion photographer. I took about 30 shots and still couldn't do them justice. So trust me and look them up on facebook. You'll be glad you did.) I love the Beehive one.

(Okay, I just found some official photos of the medallions. The one of Christ comes in gold and silver.)

If you're in the Cache Valley area, they are going to debut the medallions at the Logan Gift Show this coming Friday and Saturday (Booth #30). I have some 2 for 1 entry passes if anyone wants one. Just e-mail me or leave a comment here. (Or call me if you are old fashioned and have my phone number.) I've got 3 or 4 passes left that I'd be happy to give out so they get used so PLEASE ask if you want one. There are also 2 for 1 passes in the Hometown Values booklet that came in the mail for this month.


Anyway, Austin in particular has been enthralled with the medallions. He wanted the one with the Temple to be his and keep it in his room. I'll probably humor him eventually, but for now they are on the display area in my entry way. I keep trading off which one sits in the wooden base, and also which side sits out. I happen to really like what is on the back of each one just as well as the front.


It's funny, because when I heard what the company was selling, I pictured buying them for older people but, like I said, Austin has been all over them. He has tried to take the Jesus medallion to school in his pocket so he'd have a good day and he has also been sleeping with it under his pillow so he wouldn't have any more bad dreams. The other night he crawled into bed with me (after he'd wet his own bed) and when I woke up in the morning I found the Jesus medallion under MY pillow!


Austin truly believes in the powers of the medallion. I know this because he has been learning to ride a two wheeler and one day after practicing on the bike I let him go over to his friend's house. As I dropped him off at the door he ran back and handed me the medallion. He had it in his pocket to help him not be so afraid to ride the bike and to protect him so he wouldn't get hurt. I thought it was kind of sweet. His friend's mom said, "Is that a big Jesus coin he just handed you?" with a bit of surprise, so I had to explain what was going on.


I think this may be the new thing we hide in each others' rooms, backpacks, underwear drawers, etc. The David Archuleta picture may have been replaced by the Jesus medallion.

Favorite Photo Friday!

A quick photo of our little Harry Potter before we went out Trick-or-Treating and got soaked to the skin.

Our New Kid Bathroom

Long story short: New laptop = PHOTOS on the blog again! Yay!

So, here's the first installment of the remodel of our new home, the kids' bathroom.

Here's a photo of what it looked like before:

(The paint was kind of a light pink and the linoleum was gray and pink. I'm glad one of my friends really liked the shower curtain, so it went to a good home.)

Now, onto the new bathroom. First a little background. I told the kids (especially since Morgan wasn't 100 percent thrilled about the idea of moving) that they could pick out the shower curtain for their new bathroom. When they picked this one I was the one that wasn't thrilled. I told them we'd wait and look around a little more. When they didn't find anything they liked better I went to Target and bought this one and 2 others, hoping they would get confused and pick a different one. But, they didn't, so this is the one we went with. It was a while before I could walk into their bathroom without humming the theme from the circus. Now I like it just fine.

Here it is:

We had our carpenter put board and batten on the walls and we got new tile. We also re-did the cultured marble trim, changing it from mauve to white, and changed out the hardware on the vanity. (I found a really good, inexpensive source on e-bay. It cost about $100 to do the bathroom, whole kitchen and linen closet in the hallway.) We debated for quite a while over what color to paint the top, but this is what we ended up with. I'm happy with it and Hal really likes it, which is a plus. Austin won out and got his orange bathmats. (I won out because they were $6 on clearance for both of them.)

Here is my favorite part of the bathroom. Whenever anyone comes to look at the house I make them step into the bathroom and shut the door so they can see it.

Each kid has their own colored towel(s) on their own hooks. I love this because there is no spreading of boy germs to the girls and vice versa.

I really wanted to frame out the mirror too, but since we were in such a time crunch to get it done to move in, I had to wait - thinking Hal and I can do it later. Only problem is that the top rail for the board and batten runs right into the front of the mirror, so we'll have to do some creative cutting later. I think we'll start with the easy mirror downstairs when we work on that bathroom in the spring.

Well, that's the grand tour. It's a little bit of a cozy (small) bathroom but it'll do for now.