Brinley's Hair - November 11, 2014

Tuesday - November 11th

Brinley let me do her hair for school today.  I love it when they kids let me do their hair.  she looked on Pinterest for a hairstyle and this is the hairstyle she chose.  She loved it at first, but by the time school was over she said it was starting to hurt her head.

 Here are some more hats that I've made.  I've been a crocheting machine lately.  I just keep getting orders for my hats.  It is so nice!  Heavenly Father is really blessing us.  We weren't going to have any money for Christmas.  Now, because of all these hats selling like they are, we are going to get to have presents at Christmas.  We decided that all the crocheting money will go toward our Christmas.

Yesterday, Alissa came home from school with some super sad news.  She came right in and told me first thing.  I was already emotional from my crying on Sunday night, so I didn't handle this news well.  I just burst into tears again.  Alissa has a friend named Tanya.  She is the sweetest girl ever.  When I first met her, I thought, wow, she has been through a lot.  Her mom passed away when she was 8 years old.  She is the youngest of a large family.  I just couldn't imagine how hard it must be to lose your mom at such a young age.  I felt really bad for her, but meeting her dad and seeing how good he was with all of his children put my mind at ease.  Well, over the weekend, she lost her dad.  He passed away on Saturday.  He was feeling sick and had been feeling sick for about a week.  Anyway, he just fell over and died.  I feel so horrible for Tanya.  I can hardly handle it.  This makes me so sad.  This is the second family that I know that has lost both of their parents this year.  It is too much sadness for me to handle.  Alissa said that Tanya's Aunt didn't want Tanya to tell anybody.  They want to just be left alone.  It makes me so sad.  This is a sad way to end this post, but this is all I can think about lately.  My heart hurts so bad for Tanya.

Alissa's Sewing Project - November 9, 2014

Sunday - November 9, 2014

Alissa has started sewing at school.  she is loving it.  This was her first project.  I'm so jealous of the cool sewing machine that she gets to use.  I wish I had a sewing machine that could do all of that.  Parker couldn't just stand back and let Alissa be in the picture by herself.  He's just funny like that.  Also, here is another picture of our new chair.  I'm just so happy to not have to sit in that horrible awful old computer chair.

So, 5 years ago, today, is the day my mom passed away.  It is so crazy that it has been 5 years.  I miss her so much.  the hurt and longing for her never goes away.  You just learn to deal with it and you learn to live without her.  You learn how to take care of the things you relied on her for.  It is just so sad to have to do that.  I wish she could still be here with us.  I did pretty good today.  I was happy and I didn't cry all day.  I did my best not to think about it.  At the end of the day, as I put the kids to bed, it started to hit me.  I read stories to the kids until Parker and Brinley were asleep.  After they fell asleep, Alissa asked if me and her could just talk for a little bit before she went to bed.  We ended up talking about my mom and of course, I started to cry.  I was telling Alissa about how much I loved to talk to my mom.  I loved our phone conversations.  I just really miss talking to her.  Then Alissa pointed out that I have her to talk to know.  I realized how much I love talking to Alissa and what a blessing that is.  Then I thought about the friendship I had with my mom and now the friendship that I have with Alissa.  All of that made me burst into tears.  I'm so happy to have my Alissa to talk with.  I am so blessed to have such wonderful children that take such good care of me and suddenly become so grown up when I'm having a hard time and I need them.

New Chair and Brinley and Jamie - November 8, 2014

Saturday - November 8, 2014

Since the blessings from paying our tithing have started coming in, we had enough money to do a big grocery shopping trip.  Roger and I went to Sam's Club today.  It was so nice to be able to do a big grocery shopping trip.  We have felt like we were starving.  It has been rough.  But, we are so happy that it is better and we have been overwhelmed with how much Heavenly father has blessed us.  Our computer chair is broken,  It feels like it is going to fall apart and throw you to the ground at any moment when you sit on it.  So, we have been needing to get a new chair.  Today, we were finally able to do that!  So, here is the picture of our new computer chair.

 Alissa's friend, Jamie, was over here again today.  And, again, they got a hold of my phone.  Here are the pictures they took.  Alissa isn't in any of these pictures because she was over at her friend, Malaiyah's house.  Jamie and Malaiyah had a falling out over a roll yesterday.   Since they are mad at each other, Jamie didn't feel like she could go over there to play.  so, she chose to stay and hang out with us instead.

The roll incident that happened yesterday was kind of funny.  Jamie is an only child and she is not used to having to share.  Especially food.  She does not share food!  I can relate to that.  I was not an only child, but I did not share food.  That was a hard thing for me to get over, when I met Roger.  Our first little tiff in our relationship was over a milkshake that he bought for me, then tried to drink a little of it.  It's sad that I was so bothered at the thought of giving him even a little taste.  But, I'm over that now.  I've learned to share my food. 

Back to the story.  Jamie loves my rolls.  I didn't make more rolls yesterday, because I just wasn't feeling up to it.  But there were still a few rolls left in the pan.  Brinley and Malaiyah's younger sister, Tiernynn get home from school about 30 minutes before Alissa, Jamie, and Malaiyah.  Tiernynn and Brinley both wanted a roll.  I told them they could have one, but realized too late, that there wouldn't be enough for Alissa and her friends.  I had some cookies to offer everybody, but not rolls.  since there was one roll left and Jamie seems to be the one who loves the rolls the most, I decided to let her have the last roll.  When they got here, I explained the roll situation as I gave them their cookies.  I told Jamie she could have the last roll.  Malaiyah, thinking it would be a funny joke, ran over and quickly bit into the roll.  It was funny, but Jamie didn't think so.  Jamie got really mad and chased after Malaiyah.  When Jamie caught up to Malaiyah, she slapped her across the face.  Of course, Malaiyah didn't think that was funny at all.  That wasn't funny and wasn't very cool.  Malaiyah and Tiernynn went home and Jamie came in here too cool off.  she explained to me how she does not share food and she does not feel sorry for what she did.  I shared my stories of not sharing food and how things are much better since I learned to share.  She said she will never change.  So, that was fun.  Hopefully, they will make up quickly or walking to and waiting at the bus stop is going to be really akward for the three of them for a while.

Parker's School Stuff Came - November 7, 2014

Parker's school stuff came today.  I was so surprised by all of the stuff that they send.  I love the K12 program!  It is so nice!  I love that they provide you with all of these supplies and it is all free.  Parker and Brinley were as giddy as they are on Christmas morning.  Brinley stayed home from school today, so she got to be here when it all came.  Seeing all of the fun stuff made Brinley and Alissa both start to think about how badly they want to do K12.  They are funny girls.  They loved it when we did it before.  They really enjoy doing their schooling that way, but they really missed seeing their school friends.

Brinley was really funny when posing for this picture.  she is goofy.  She kept saying, "This is uncomfortable.  I can't hold this pose for much longer."

 After opening it all, Brinley wanted to organize it for us.

 Brinley made cookies all by herself for the very first time today.  She mostly just loves to eat the dough, so she didn't bake very many cookies.

After, I gave Trisha her hats, she posted a selfie of her and her girls wearing their hats.  From her one post, I got 14 orders for more hats.  All of her friends and family loved the hats and wanted some themselves.  She told them that I was selling them for $10.00, since that's what she ordered them for.  I was so surprised that that many people loved my hats enough that they wanted to buy some.  14 orders are $140.00!  That is some much needed money.  Since so many people wanted my hats, Roger thought, maybe people at work would be interested and I could make some more money that way.  So, he asked me to take some pictures of the hats I've already made, so he could show them at work and see if I could get some more orders.  I've gotten a few orders from Roger's work already.  He said that a lot of people are interested, so he should be coming home with lots more orders for me soon.
Alissa has gotten into the crocheting spirit also.  She is quite talented.  Here is a hat that she made.

 Here are some of the hats I have done so far.  This first one isn't finished yet.  It is a hat for Missy VanBibber.  She ordered another Christmas tree hat.

The hats Missy ordered.

Another hat that Alissa made.

Alissa's friend and a Beautiful Sunset - November 6, 2014

Thursday - November 6, 2014

Alissa's friend, Jamie was here.  She spends a lot of time hanging out over here.  She likes to think of herself as part of our family.  she got a hold of my phone and took some selfies.  I told her that if she was taking pictures with my pone, I was going to post them on my blog.  So, here they are.

The sunset was so pretty tonight.  The kids were all outside playing with friends, when Brinley came racing back inside, excitedly telling me about how beautiful the sunset is.  she told me that I have to come out and see it and we have to get a picture of it.  I gave her my phone, so she could go out and take a picture.  She took a picture and came back to show me.  It is so pretty.  I ran out to see it also.

Trying to sell this hat - November 4, 2014

Tuesday - November 4, 2014

I posted this picture online today, hoping to sell it.  All I got was responses about how nice it looks, but nobody wants to buy it.  So, that's a bummer.  Everybody said I should try and sell my hats.  It's frustrating to actually post a hat on all the classified pages and realize that nobody wants it.  At least, I was able to sell 3 hats to Trisha.  That money will be nice and extremely helpful.  since we started paying our tithing, money as been really tight.  We have not had the money to do a grocery shopping trip since sometime in August.  We have been living off of our food storage.  We haven't had meat in a few weeks.  Roger and I have been struggling to pay our tithing for some time now.  Because, we have just enough money, each pay check to pay our bills, buy gas, and groceries.  There is nothing left over.  If we want money to go out and play, we just scrimp on or don't buy groceries.  So, tithing has been a hard thing for us, because we have known that if we pay tithing, we won't be able to buy groceries.  But we made up our mind in August, that we are going to pay our tithing, no matter what, and we have stuck with that.  It has been rough.  The bishop warned us that it would be rough at first.  He said, it's almost like the lord is testing you to see if you are really committed.  After the rough part, it will get better and the blessings will start coming.  We have been struggling since August.  Our cupboards are nearly bare, but we aren't quitting and things are starting to look up.  Roger got a raise at work.  He took a position as a trainer.  He didn't really want to have that position, because he really doesn't enjoy training people, but it comes with a pay raise and they asked him to apply.  Also, The PC on Roger's shift, moved to a different shift.  They hired a guy, Brenden, on Roger's shift to replace her.   Brenden asked Roger if he will be his back up PC.  That will give Roger an advantage for the next time they are hiring PCs. 

This is the picture of the hat that I posted on the facebook classified pages for our area.  I'm really bummed that nobody wanted to buy it.  I listed it for $10.00.  I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Pillow Pants - November 3, 2014

I am behind on laundry and Parker didn't have any clean pants to put on tonight after he took his bath, so I told him I would hurry and sew him a pair of pajama bottoms to wear when he got out.  He chose the left over fabric I had from some pillows I made.  While he bathed, I quickly made these pants.  We decided to call them pillow pant because they match the living room pillows.  Parker loves them.

Alissa has started learning how to sew at school.  They have been learning about the sewing machine, but haven't actually started sewing.  She asked if she could try out my sewing machine, since I had it set up.  She had a lot of fun trying out all of the different stitches.  After Alissa tried it, Parker tried it.  He didn't like it very much.  He didn't think it was very fun and it scared him a little because if her pushed the peddle too hard, the machine would go super fast and shake.  He really didn't like that.

Hats - November 2, 2014

Sunday - November 2, 2014
I love to crochet.  Every year, right around this time, I get the crocheting bug and all I want to do is crochet.  I have a lot of fun ideas for hats that I want to make.  I make a lot of fun hats, then the kids and I wear them as we go out and about.  I love to wear different hats to the bus stop each morning.  A lot of times, the kids' friends will see our hats and ask for one also.  So, I give a lot of hats away to their friends.  Last week, I was wearing one of my favorite hats to the bus stop, when another mom at the bus stop asked if I would crochet some hats for her and her girls.  She offered to pay me $10.00 per hat.  I agreed.  She wanted two owl hats and a hat like mine, except with pink and black.  The hat I was wearing is the hat I call my "Best Friends Hat".  The reason I call it that, is because, Jenny Springman (one of my best friends from my high school and college days) came to visit a week ago.  When she told me she was coming, I was in a goofy mood.  She said she was coming so we could celebrate our birthdays (both in October a week apart from each other).  I wanted to give her a gift, so, the idea to make her a hat came to my mind.  Then, the goofy part of me thought, I could make matching hats for both of us.  I would make them goofy, but still cute enough for us to wear.  So, I told her on the phone that I would hurry and whip us up some best friend hats before she got here.  I asked her what her favorite colors were.  She said green, black, and white.  So, I hurried and made a cute hat, then made one for me (just like it) with purple, black, and white.  She said she loved her hat and we wore them to keep warm while we walked around and talked that night.
So, today I made one of the owl hats for Trisha (mom from the bus stop) and I made a pink and black hat for her.  I don't love the way the pink and black look.  I sent a picture of it to Trisha.  She wasn't that fond of it either.  We decided that it would look better with white, pink and black.  I don't know what I'll end up doing with the pink and black hat.

Halloween 2014

We had a busy day.  It started with us waking up early to get ready for school.  Alissa's friend Jamie had warned us that she was going to come over really early today so she could style Alissa and Brinley's hair.  I had completely forgot about this plan, so I was quite surprised when there was somebody knocking at our door at 5:20 am.  Luckily we were all awake and sitting in the living room, so we heard the door.  Brinley decided to be a witch, so she didn't need her hair done after all.  Jamie just put Brin's hair up in a messy bun, so her hat would fit over it.  Alissa didn't need her hair done anymore either since we discovered that her Sim costume needed a hat or something extra to help it stay on her head.

So, we the kids all got ready for school and headed out.  After they left, Parker and I took a nap.  So, I guess our day wasn't as busy as I originally said.  We had a little while to nap and relax, but as soon as the girls got home, we were super busy.  Parker and I are relaxing this week.  Next week he starts the K12 program and we will be busy with school work again.  After my nap, I went upstairs to take a shower.  I asked Parker to answer my phone if his sisters or somebody he knows calls.  When I came back downstairs after my shower, Parker told me that someone had called.  He wasn't sure who it was, but the caller id said it was Rebecca VanBibber.  I said, "Oh, Becca called."  Parker looked at me, nodded his head and said, "No. It was someone named Reee...becca."  It was funny that he didn't realize that Becca's real name is Rebecca.

As soon as the girls got home from school, we all got ready and headed to Midland Square to go trick-or-treating at the businesses in downtown Tremonton.  Alissa's Sim headband didn't fit very well in the truck.  It was funny watching her try to get comfortable.  Eventually it occurred to me how easily we could justben the wire, then bend it back after we got there.

Maryann, Sydney, and Conner met us there.  It was super crowded.  But the kids had fun anyway.  Jamie came home from school with Alissa.  She planned to spend the whole day with us.  She is even sleeping over tonight.

Parker ran in to his friend Jeshua while we were there.  We haven't seen Jeshua in a while so that was exciting for Parker.  Jeshua walked around with us for most of the time, then he caught up with his older brother and they had to leave.  

At the end, when we got back to Midland Square they had hot chocolate and scones for us.  The scones were yummy, but we had to wait in line to get them.  we stood in line for 15 minutes before we got ours.  I think it was worth it though.

We came home from trick-or-treating downtown and had a half hour to rest before we headed to the Bothwell church for a trunk-or-treat.  Roger came with us to the trunk-or-treat.  Brinley was excited to see Delany there.  The kids loved the trunk-or-treat.  There was one car with a guy dressed in a really creepy looking costume sitting next to the candy.  Parker was too afraid to go close and get his candy.  I had been sitting on our truck handing out candy with Roger, but Parker came running back, all angry.  He sat down by us and said, "I'm not going anymore!  I can't do it!"  I thought it was funny when he explained why he was ready to quit trick-or-treating.  I offered to go with him and he liked that.  When we got over there, he still chickened out.  We just went past that car and on to the next.  There was a contest for the best decorated trunk.  So, a lot of people had really fun decorations set up.  It was really fun.  There was a big table set up at one area where they were serving doughnuts and hot chocolate.  That was nice.  By the time we got to that spot I was starting to feel really cold, so that hot chocolate really hit the spot.

Before we left, I had the kids pose with somebody who was wearing a grim reaper costume and walking on stilts.  I thought his costume was really fun, so I asked if we could get a picture with him.  I thought it would be fun to see Roger standing next to someone on stilts.  Roger is really tall.

Alissa said she got a lot of attention at school with her costume.  Everybody loved the Sim idea.  So, she was happy about that.  There were a few people who didn't know what she was because they had never heard of the game, but most people knew.  It was funny ho many little girls dressed up as Elsa this Halloween.  We saw a ton of Elsa's.

After the trunk-or-treat, we dumped our candy into bowls and headed out with empty bags to trick-or-treat around the neighborhood.  It was fun, but Parker had a bad fall at one point and Brinley got really tired of walking.  She was frustrated because she didn't want to stop trick-or-treating, but her feet hurt too bad and she felt like she couldn't go on.  We stopped at Jamie's house on our way home, so Jamie could get her pajamas.  We all went in and rested for a minute while she got her stuff.  Brinley ended up falling asleep on the couch, so Jamie's Grandma offered to give us a ride home. I was so happy to have a ride home.  We really wore ourselves out.  We did a ton of walking today.  The kids got a ton of candy.

Roger didn't have to go in to work until 10:00 pm today, so that was nice.  We relaxed with him for about a half hour, then he had to leave us to go to work.  Before he left, I asked him to help me get Brinley and Parker upstairs.  They had both fallen asleep.  Parker fell asleep on the couch and Brinley fell asleep on the floor next to me.  I was able to wake Parker up so he could walk upstairs to his bed, but Brinley was out.  I could not wake her up.  I got her to stand up, but then she just slumped over.  I was holding her up and talking to her, but she was out.  There was nothing I could do to wake her up.  Roger had to carry her up to her bed.  It was really kind of funny.  I couldn't believe that I had her standing up and she was completely asleep.  She's a funny girl.

Crazy Hair Day - October 30, 2014

Today is Crazy Hair Day at Brinley's school.

Hats - October 28, 2014

My niece, Missy ordered some fun and crazy hats for her to give as Christmas gifts.  There is a movie on Netflix called Sharknado that she and her friends love.  She asked me to make 3 Sharknado hats, a snowman hat, and a Christmas tree hat.  She likes regular type hats with the snowman, tree, and tornado on top of the hats.  Last year I made her a crazy hat for crazy hat day at her work and she loved it so much, she wants more.  Her hat last year had a Christmas tree on top.  Anyways.... I haven't seen Sharknado yet, but I started putting the hat together.  I plan to watch Sharknado so I can get a better feel for what the hat should look like.  Here is what I came up with so far.  Also, some pictures of other hats I've done, so I could sent the pictures to Missy, so she could chose how she wants the bottom of the hats to look.

Cowboy Day at School - October 27, 2014

It was cowboy day at school today.  It is drug free week, so they have the kids dress or do something fun each day of the week to remind them to be drug free.  Here's Brinley and her friend, Tiernynn on the way to the bus stop.