Halloween 2011

Monday - October 31, 2011

We had a good Halloween, there was just one little crazy weirdness that we had to deal with.  We had planned to go to the big Garland City trunk-or-treat.  This was a new thing they were trying out.  I though it was going to be crazy because there would be a ton of people there, but I wanted to go and experience it anyway.  I told the kids to get all ready to go.  While they were getting ready, Roger and I were downstairs looking on the computer for a house to rent.  We found one that looked like it was pretty big and a really good price in Brigham City.  Roger called about it and the guy said that we could come and look at it right away.  He said he would wait for us.  We thought we better go and see it, because it is such a good price, we figured it would go fast.  So, we had to break the bad news to the kids that we would have to miss the Garland trunk-or-treat and go to Brigham to see this house.  Alissa was the most upset over it.  

The kids eventually calmed down and we all piled in the van to go check it out.

Something is wrong and horrible about this house.  I don't know what it is.  Maybe someone was murdered there.  Who knows.... All I know is that is the creepiest house I have ever been in.  I was extremely uncomfortable in there.  There is just a really yucky feeling.  Something is not right with it.  I can't imagine the kids and I being alone there at night. It is too creepy.  I just know I can't do it.  The guy is really desperate to get this house rented.  Roger was acting really interested.  The house is bigger than the one we're in now and the rent would only be $600 a month.  Roger wanted to tell the guy yes, but I wouldn't let him.  We left and told him we would let him know tomorrow after we have time to discuss it.  

When we got home, I told Roger there was no way I could do it.  Something was way too creepy and scary about that house.  there was a horrible scary type spirit there.  He called the guy back and told him we weren't interested.  The guy was so desperate for someone to take it, that he lowered the rent to $500.00 a month and offered for us not to have to do any yard work.  It was hard for Roger to say no, but he did.  Something was really wrong with that house.  I'm so relieved that we did not agree to that.  On the outside, the house doesn't look like an evil place and the neighborhood looks nice.  As we were leaving there were a ton of kids out trick-or-treating, so we know that the kids would have had lots of friends there, but like I said before, something wasn't right about that house.

 We got home from checking out the house in Brigham and hurried out to do our trick-or-treating.  The kids had a lot of fun and they got a lot of candy.

Trunk-or-Treat - October 29, 2011

Saturday - October 29, 2011

Our ward had their trunk-or-treat today.  The kids love going to the trunk-or-treat.  People around here are really weird about the trunk-or-treat.  I don't quite understand it.  They all discuss ways that we can be more secretive about when our trunk-or-treats are.  They don't want people outside of the ward to know about the trunk-or-treat, because they don't like it when outsiders come and trunk-or-treat with us.  I always think, the more the merrier, so I have a really hard time understanding their reasoning or the mindset behind excluding outsiders.  It really seems un-neighborly and not the kind of behavior that they teach at church.  We're supposed to love our neighbor.  But, whatever!    I guess I'm more sympathetic, because we have been the outsiders here in this ward for 8 years now.  We really have never been excepted.  If we were born here or had family that lived here, we would be accepted.  But someone who has moved here and has no family in the area is an outsider and they do not like outsiders here.  It took me 3 years to make a friend in this area.  And the way I did it, was I prayed for Heavenly Father to send somebody to our ward that was an outsider also.  Within a few months of saying that prayer, 2 families moved in (really close to us) who had no friends or family that already lived in the area and neither of them were from here.  I pounced!  I was quick to go over and make friends.  I knew Heavenly Father had sent them to the area so I could have friends.  I have been very thankful for that.

I didn't mean to get off topic here.  So, we went to the trunk-or-treat today and it was a lot of fun.  We love the trunk-or-treat.  It's fun, because you get double the Halloween candy.  We get candy at the trunk-or-treat, then we get to go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood on Halloween and get just as much candy as we did at the trunk-or-treat.  It's good fun.

Hat and sunglasses Day at School - October 25, 2011

Tuesday - October 25, 2011

It was hat and sunglasses day at school today.  The kids were all being very good at posing for pictures, so I took a lot of them.

Nerd Convention - October 22, 2011

Saturday - October 22, 2011

There was some big computer thing going on this weekend.  You had to pay to watch the whole thing online.  It was like a weekend long thing.  I'll have to ask Roger what it was again to give you a better idea of what was happening.  It just all sounded so boring to me that I didn't pay close enough attention when he was telling me about it.  Anyway, Roger's friends came to stay the weekend, so they could all watch it together.  They each brought their computers with them.  They set it all up downstairs.

Roger said they had a lot of fun.  Before they cleaned it all up and got ready to go home, I went downstairs to take a picture of their set up.

Pretty Hair - October 18, 2011

Tuesday - October 18, 2011

Brinley and Hannah let me do their hair really cute for school today.  Alissa wouldn't let me do hers.  she insisted that she likes hers much better when it is just down.  She said that she doesn't like hairstyles.  Anyway... at least Hannah and Brinley enjoy it.  I have fun being creative and doing cute hair styles.  I made a pretty heart in Hannah's hair and a super cute waterfall braid in Brinley's hair.  We looked online to get some fun hairstyle ideas.

First Day of School - October 17, 2011

Monday - October 17, 2011

Homeschooling was very stressful.  The reason I had decided to homeschool was for Parker.  I really wanted to help him get ahead and to feel more confident.  Alissa and Brinley did really well with the homeschooling, but Parker fought with me nonstop.  He refused to do any work.  I just got too frustrated and my plan to get Parker ahead was not working.  The kids kept looking out the window during the day at reeses time and wishing that they were over at the school playing with their friends.  Also, people around here started treating us differently.  Kids that they used to be able to play with could no longer play with them.  They even treated us different at church.  It's like they are all offended that we didn't put the kids in school.  It's the craziest thing.  Before we decided to homeschool, they had all warned us that our kids would become social retards.  I feel like they are all trying their hardest to make sure that happens, by not allowing their kids to socialize with ours.  It's weird and rude.  I can't understand the people around here.  They do not like us at all.  It makes thing really difficult.  The kids have walked Hannah and Tanner to school a few times, because it's fun.  One of the last times they walked them their, Alissa's "friend" from the neighborhood told her that she needed to get off the school property, then walked away.  As her "friend" walked in, the principal walked out the doors.  Alissa was freaked out, so she just ran home as quick as she could.  When they walk Hannah and Tanner to school, they stay outside and there is nothing wrong with that, but everybody around here is treating us so bad, the kids feel scared and like they are doing something wrong.  I just couldn't handle it all anymore.

So, we decided to put the kids back in school.  Maybe people will start being nicer to us.  Also, I thought it would be better for Parker and my relationship if he fights with his teachers about doing schoolwork rather than fighting with me.  I do not like arguing with him and having to work so hard to get him to do anything.

So, here they are.  All ready for school.  Brinley and Tanner are in afternoon Kindergarten, so they don't have to leave for a few more hours, but they are both up and ready to go this morning.

 Brinley is super excited to go to kindergarten.  Her teacher is Mrs. Holdaway.  Tanner and her are in the same class.  I decided that I didn't take enough pictures of Alissa and Parker on their first days of kindergarten, so I determined to do better with Brinley.  I took plenty of pictures of her on her walk to school.  she was nice and put up with it,  Tanner though it was annoying.  When we got to the school, he ran ahead and said, "I'm outta here!"  He's a funny kid.

Our Crazy Decision and a Visit From Grandma Moser - October 16, 2011

Sunday - October 16, 2011

Grandma Moser came for a visit.  We always love it when she comes.  The kids love their Grandma.  She brought a birthday card for Brinley and one for me.  We just relaxed and visited while she was here.  When she first sat down on the couch, Molly jumped up and sat on her lap.  It was really funny.  Molly is a big dog who thinks she is still a tiny puppy.  Joyce didn't seem to mind it too much though.

Roger and I decided to do something crazy.  We are tired of this house, tired of this neighborhood and ward, and we are ready for a change.  The economy is bad and the value of our house has gone down.  Right now is not the best time to try and sell our house, but we are tired and we want out.  I think the floor breaking in the kitchen was just what we needed to push us over the edge.  It just seems like things keep breaking and every time we feel like we are in good shape and going to be able to get out of debt, something else breaks and we are even deeper in debt after that.  One of Roger's coworkers filed for bankruptcy and he was telling roger about it and how it all worked.  Roger came home and we talked about it and decided that it sounded like a good idea.  We'd get out of debt and get out of this house that we feel trapped in.  It seems like a win win situation.  It's kind of crazy and we are just jumping into it, but that's how we do things lately.  We're crazy like that.  After we file for bankruptcy, we'll have to move and rent a house somewhere.  We figure it would be a lot harder to find a house when we have a pet, so we asked Joyce if Molly could come and live with her.  She seems really happy with that idea.  Molly is a really good and sweet dog.  I'll miss her a ton, but I like the thought of being able to go and visit her regularly.  It's hard to imagine sending her somewhere where she won't be a part of our lives anymore.

Brinley's 6th Birthday - October 15, 2011

Saturday - October 15, 2011

It's Brinley's Birthday!  We had a pajama Breakfast Birthday party.  So, we had to wake up a little early to prepare everything for it.  I needed to make breakfast and the cake needed to be decorated.  Here's Brinley and Parker, when they first woke up, enjoying all the birthday decorations.  Roger worked last night.  When he got home, he spent a little time with us and wished Brinley a Happy Birthday before he went upstairs to go to bed.

 It's a little different trying to use the kitchen with these big fans going and blocking the way.  I turned them off during her party so we could hear each other.  The fans are just so loud.  Also, with the fridge where it is, we had to turn the table sideways.

 Brinley and Parker were super helpful and licked out the bowl for me after I finished with the icing.  They love licking out the bowl when ever I make anything, but they especially love the icing.

 Alissa and Brinley helped me decorate the cake while I was making Breakfast.  For breakfast, I prepared all the fixins for a yummy breakfast burrito.  I put everything on the table and let the kids fix their burritos how they liked them.  I also had cereal for anybody who didn't want any part of a breakfast burrito. 

 Josie was the first one to come over and her mom, Lori, was super nice and thoughtful and sent her over with a bunch of hot chocolate already made, in cups, and ready to drink.  That was a nice surprise.  I was so worried about what we would eat that I completely forgot about drinks.  So, the hot chocolate was a much needed surprise. 

 After the kids fixed their plates of food, they took them into the living room to watch a show while they enjoyed it.

 We all gathered in the living room when we finished, to watch Brinley open her gifts.

 Brinley, before we sang to her and had cake and ice cream.  We sang happy Birthday to Brinley twice.  First we sang it the nice way, then we sang the funny you live in a zoo version.  Hannah (who we babysit) insisted that we should all sing it that way also.  Brinley thought it was funny.

 I took this picture after all of Brinley's friends had gone home.  It is just so crazy seeing the kitchen looking like this.  The floor looks so yucky where they tore out the tile.

 The kids enjoying Brinley's new toys.  It took us a while to figure out how to make this toy work right.  Your supposed to make the little pop up toy roll down the slide then when it lands, it hits a magnet and pops out.  It just wasn't as simple as it seemed.  We figured it out eventually.

 Brinley got some fake nails for her birthday.  So pretty!

 Uncle Dave and Cousin Kristin decided to try the I-fly in Ogden today.  I've been dying to see someone I know try this.  I love to go and just watch people at the I-fly place.  It is crazy looking.  I don't think I would like to try it, but roger keeps saying it's something he would like to do.  Since, they wer going to be there, we went to meet them and watch the fun.  Aunt Shelley dug some change from her purse and bought some candy for the kids to share while we watched.

 Here we are watching and this is a picture from Kristin's turn.

 When they were done, we sat down outside while we decided on what we should do now.  The kids had a lot of fun playing around outside. while they waited. 

  We decided to walk over to subway for some dinner before we all headed home.

Cracked Tile - October 13, 2011

Thursday - October 13, 2011

I woke up to find horror in the kitchen.  The tile in front of the refrigerator was all cracked and wet.  I put a towel down to dry it up and realized that the water was coming up through the cracks.  Roger woke up and I showed him what was going on.  We moved the refrigerator and couldn't figure out what was happening and where the water was coming from.  We called somebody to come and look at it and found out that there was a tiny little leak in the hose (for the filtered water) in the back of the fridge.  Apparently, this hose had been slowly leaking water for some time now.  The wood underneath the tile was completely soaked.  The wood expanded enough that it started to break the tile and that's how we found out there was a problem.

We called the insurance company and they sent someone over to check it out.  They had seen this happen before.  Some workers came over.  They set the refrigerator up in another area of the kitchen and started working on our floor.  They tore up the tile in the refrigerator area and set up large fans to dry out the floor.  They put a fan in the crawl space to dry the floor from underneath and two large fans in the kitchen.  The fans are super loud!  They want us to keep the fans running nonstop all weekend long.  They said they will come back on Monday and it should be dry enough then.

This is a mess.  I'm not loving these loud fans blowing nonstop, but it is a little exciting.  I know it's a horrible thing and I should be all upset, but sometimes different is just fun and exciting.  I'll never understand myself.  I think I might be just a little crazy. That's all.

Ice Skating - October 1, 2011

Saturday - October 1, 2011

We took the kids ice skating today.  We all had a lot of fun.  There was hardly anybody at the ice skating rink.  It was nice to pretty much have the whole place to ourselves.  It makes it much less intimidating.  Parker and Brinley got to use these little helper walker looking things.  They loved it.  Brinley was nervous, but felt much better when she had her walker thing.  Alissa used the walker things a few times, but she did pretty good with out it.  Roger is too good of a skater.  It's fun to watch him skate.  Parker wants to be like his dad, so he tries hard with the walker thing.  He just wants to go fast.  He has no interest in slowly making his way around the ice skating rink.  It's funny to watch Parker.  He tried a little with out the walker.  He did alright, but he likes to go fast so the walker thing helps.