Can We Build It? Yes We Can!

I've always been a big Bob the Builder fan. My nephew once asked his mom if Bob Vila was the real life Bob the Builder! That cracks me up every time I think of it! Tayton was Bob the Builder for Halloween one year.

Kirke's home for two weeks and after our not-so-relaxing-but-tons-of-fun-weekend in Branson I thought he should get home and get to work!

The boys are going to be elementary school drop-outs starting in January as we embark on our new adventure of homeschooling. *If you think this is a terrible idea or wish to share your negative thoughts about this choice please keep it to yourself, the decision is made and support is all we need now.*

I know that we need the "school area" to look like a school for the boys to be serious about learning so I began a transformation of part of our dining room before Kirke got home. I hung up a dry erase board for each boy and one for me. Kirke got to help make desks that fold down (so they can still use their boards) for each kid.

Then I found an ad for a loft bed in the classifieds and called them up and next thing we knew we were off on an adventure to track down this address and buy this great loft bed. We got there and had to dismantle it and load it onto the trailer. We drove the 40 miles home and put it back together. The boys were thrilled. Well that is until Korbin realized the new bed was in Tayton's room and not his. His little heart was broken. He has a futon that he has been using lately because we loaned our other bunk beds out to a friend.

Today while the boys were at school Kirke and I debated on whether we should buy the other bed that's just like the loft bed in Tayton's room that is advertised in the classifieds also OR should we just build him a loft bed ourselves. We went to Lowe's and wandered making a list of supplies we thought we might need. Then we went and wandered through a couple furniture stores and then decide to just make his bed ourselves.

We went to Lowe's bought the things we thought we needed and then went home and got to work. It was 1 o'clock and we had until 3 o'clock till the boys got out of school and would be underfoot while we tried to work. Amazingly we got the main parts finished! Then we went back to Lowe's to get the parts for the safely rails and ladder.

Here's how it all happened:

Ignore the mismatched woods and pay more attention to their smiles! Taytons bed has the swing attached and the boys have decided its the "Titanic Room" and Korbins new bed is made of wood like Noah's Ark so it's "Korbin's Ark".

Happy Veterans Day

Just a quick update...

Kirke made it home Friday around noon. We headed straight for Branson to meet up with his Dad and Grandmother (we had his mom with us). We spent the weekend busy as can be! I have some pictures and stories to share but right now we're heading off to the Veterans Day Parade and then maybe to Best Buy to get my printer fixed....finally.

Happy Veterans Day everyone! Say an extra prayer for the troops and their families who are apart as we start off the holidays!

HELP! A Merry Maid Took Over Her Body!

This is very serious people! I'm not messing around here. My Mother In Law does not clean like this! She helps out when she's here. She always keeps my laundry done which is fantastic! She helps with the dishes and with getting the kids to pick up.

But this lady. The one who has taken over my mother in laws body is crazy! It's out of control. I woke up this morning took a shower and then I came downstairs and there she was outside at my van with the Dyson! She had cleaned out the van and was getting ready to vacuum it! I went out and hugged her and told her thank you.

I wouldn't be concerned if it had stopped there but then she came in and demanded the boys go up and cleaned their bedrooms so we could vacuum. I took the hint and went upstairs and cleaned my bathroom and bedroom. It was much needed. When I finished I took the vacuum from the Merry Maid MIL and told her she should go play with the boys and I would finish the upstairs.

I came downstairs after I vacuumed the stairs and she demanded we go and get some lunch. I was beaten into submission and drove the van to Sonic. We got our lunch, came home ate and then the crazy Merry Maid MIL was cleaning the kitchen! The boys wanted to make signs for Daddy at the airport (hopefully for tomorrow) and she said she had to finish cleaning the counter top off first (I'm pretty sure I haven't seen that counter for at least a month). She sure did it though.

I'm hoping that the nap she took this afternoon was the end of Merry Maid Mother in Law and the normal MIL will come back and spend time with us this evening.

Keep your fingers crossed that our soldier will come home tomorrow! I'll be away for a while so don't worry about me!

Disappointment

It was supposed to be tomorrow. I was supposed to be spending my last night (for two weeks) sleeping alone tonight. I told the boys that tomorrow was the day. The day they'd have a daddy again for two weeks. I even shaved my legs! He was supposed to be in Atlanta bright and early with hopes of catching an earlier flight here but his scheduled flight still had him here before dinner.

It was all lies. Mean cruel jokes. The flight was delayed. An hour? Two? Maybe twelve? No one would say for sure. Turns out to be a day and half delay.....If it's even safe to believe that.

The boys are sad. Kirkes mom is sad. (We picked her up today) My heart is broken too. I know it's stupid to whine. Whats an extra day in the grand scheme of things? He still gets to be home just as long. Yada yada yada......I get all that, I do. But I finally let myself get excited and this is what I get for it! I shoulda known better.

Lesson Learned....or reminded at least. I'm pretty sure I learned a long time ago I just needed a cruel reminder.

This is MINE

I was hanging up the kids new dry erase boards today and when I was finished I let them loose with their markers working on homework. Tayton was writing sentences and really ticked off his brother when he wrote "Korbin is a little bee." I'm pretty sure Korbin is not a bee but he was pretty mad that it was written there in black and white....or was it yellow?

I was putting together my new grill yesterday. I settled for a tabletop grill instead of giving that place my money. I was working on it for a while, and I'm damn good at putting stuff together if I say so myself! I was getting frustrated because the very last bolt didn't fit through the hole. It was just too snug and took way more force than the other one did.

Tayton being the helpful little guy that he is had this conversation with me:

Tayton: This grill is, you know...

Me: No I don't know.

Tayton: You know that bad word M. said in the car earlier and got in trouble.

*that word was Bullsh**

Me: Umm yeah

Tayton: Well don't you think that this is grill is kinda you know, a piece of that?

Me: *hold it, don't laugh, keep it together!* You can't say things like that!

Then he had the nerve to say this:

Tayton: If dad was here this grill would probably already be together right mom?

Me: No because this grill is a piece of sh**! (and more words about how I can do anything daddy can do dang it all!)

And then today I was washing the dry erase board with the special expo cleanser stuff and my own personal peanut gallery piped up again:

Tayton: Mom I really "H" the smell of that stuff.

H in our house means hate. It's a forbidden word and we even skip it when we're reading books that say the word which is really hard sometimes. I say it but I try not to because it's the ugliest word to hear out of the mouth of a toddler so we avoided it and it carried through to their school aged years.

And last but not least, my little Korbin could not be outdone by his brother in my blog and just had to do something blog worthy. He even upstaged Tate by being picture worthy in his action. He was drawing on his board and I was hanging up the third board (mine) and they were drawing away.

I turned around when Korbin said: "There now you'll always know this is my shirt!"

Yep he sure did! As if I didn't know the blue shirts in the closet are his! That would be like giving Korbin Taytons yellow shirts!

The Boys Have it All Figured Out

Yesterday Tayton came home from school very excited. They learned about the elections today.
Here's how our conversation went:

Tayton: Mom tomorrows the day you get to vote for a new president.

Me: That's right.

Tayton: But mom don't you know most people are going to just vote for themselves?

Me: *giggling* Do you think I should vote for myself?

Tayton: Yeah

Me: Do you think I'd make a good president?

Tayton: Yes

Me: Aww thanks!

Tayton: Wait a minute. Doesn't the president have to do lots of work all of the time?

Me: Yes.

Tayton: Oh then you shouldn't be president.

Me: *deep breath*.....ummm ok.

Tayton: You're already too busy all the time.

Me: Nice save kid!

The boys said they got to vote today. In the first grade at the kids school John McCain won.

I'm not sure how the kindergarten classes came out but Korbin came home and told me he got to vote today too!

Korbin: I voted today Mom.

Me: Oh yeah?

Korbin: Yep!

Me: Who did you vote for?

Korbin: Cadie

Me: Wow!

Cadie is Amber's 6 year old daughter. He must have written her in. Wait he can't spell Cadie yet. Hmmm.......

I did my job as an American and exercised my right to vote. It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes from the time we got there till we left. I stepped back in time moving to MO I guess because we voted on paper. Had to draw little arrows. Weird. In Alaska we were high tech I guess. OH and privacy was nice. Here we sat at tables. Right next to the lines of people waiting to vote. I was half expecting to get choked for making the wrong choice. Very strange if you ask me but what do I know?

Happiness Delivered

The boys got mail today!

No money, no gifts, but better than all of that it had that familiar handwriting.

It had touched his hands. It was sent with love!

Two boys couldn't have been happier than in that moment!

Their mail came from Daddy!

It Came, It Went, The Mess Remains!

I'm not myself lately. I apologize. I'd say I've been acting a little oddly but that would mean I'm feeling pretty normal. I'm feeling quiet, frustrated and my mind is very busy inside my little head. Don't fret! I'll be back to myself soon....I hope.


Halloween is one of my favorite days! It make me smile! I love love love it! I got through it this year. The boys did not get enough chocolate in their goody bags. They were cute as can be though.


Korbin was a puppy...one day, spider man the next, franken-pup another, Spider-pup another and finally settled for just his Puppy costume on Halloween night.


Tayton was Ash Ketchum, Pokemon Trainer turned Expert! He loves his costume and would probably live in it if he could.

And this last picture....well....I had to see it so you should too! These trampy teens girls were only about 14.

The house is trashed, the kids have eaten way too much candy and I'm moody. Super! Hope you had a great Halloween!

Sweet Dreams and Hotwheels

Perhaps you'll agree?

Not much beats sliding into a freshly made bed. Or in my case onto a freshly made bed because I sleep on top of my comforter set with a different blanket and sheet that I throw in the closet in the morning. This creates an "I make my bed everyday illusion".

Tonight a little blond boy fell asleep in my bed. A few night ago he slept with me and I swear it was like sleeping with 4 boxers in a winner takes all match with the ring being my bed and the bell being the closing of my eyelids!

So tonight I surrender or forfiet...whatever the case may be.... most likely self-defense! I carried his heavy butt to his bed so he has room to roll. I certainly wasn't up for a rematch!

Then with the lights off I slide under the covers. I rolled over onto what I'm certain must be Korbins junkyard. Several hotwheels cars attempted to implant themselves into my back!

Good times I tell ya!

Good times!

In-Freakin-Flation

I need a new grill. Badly!

You see one day I was preparing to cook dinner on the grill in the driveway by our pool when it was in the garage. I started the grill to heat it up. Then the grill burst into flames. They were shooting out the back and the bottom like a freakin bonfire!

I turned off the propane and opened the lid. And then I did what any idiot would do and scooped some water from the pool a few feet away and tossed it into the grill. WOW was that pretty! It was like throwing gasoline on it. That's when I realized DUH it was a grease fire! It burned out. and my grill was left in rough shape!

Then last time we grilled the same thing happened. I guess the grease from the burgers is pooling in the bottom of the grill because it's not sitting level or something! This time I was much wiser (and didn't have a pool of water nearby) so I came in and got the baking soda and put out the fire. then I cleaned the stuff out and went on about making dinner. Well now the grill is a rusted bucket of metal not suitable for preparing food for anyone that I like!

Ok back the the title of this post!

I had been looking at this grill at Wal-Mart (yeah yeah boo-hiss...its the only store we have here for petes sake back off!). Anyhow this grill was $157. The price was printed on the box. In a HUGE yellow rectangle from the manufacturer even.

Today we went to look at the grill and see if I was going to get it. The huge stack of these particular grills was on the top rack of the garden center. BUT there was a paper taped over the price on the box. This is what it said:

Unbeatable!
$177.00

I was not impressed. We called over an associate to ask her if that was right. She seemed puzzled and said it's not likely for them to raise the price on something like that and went off to find out. She returned to tell us "yes they did raise the price. The prices of everything everywhere are going up because of inflation." I went on to ask if they were allowed to sell something that is marked from the manufacturer at a lower price. She assured me they can do whatever they want to rip off the American public with their prices.

Anyone wanna come have rusty burgers and hotdogs for dinner tonight?

Mom I Need Some Furniture

Tayton was going to bed tonight and asked me if I would just let him look at the magazine he had in his hands for a few more minutes.

For most kids that would be some childs book or Nick Jr magazine. Maybe a monster truck or cars magazine. Possibly an outdoors or fashion magazine.

Not my son though. The magazine he chose to take to bed was from Furniture Row! They have everything from kids beds to waterbeds and all home furniture!

I LOVE it there! We went once and I can't wait to go back! But why would he be looking at that you might be wondering? You'd probabkly guess he was checking out the really awesome bunk beds right?

Wrong!

Tayton: Mom I need to look at desks.
Me: Ok
Tayton: I'm going to need one when I turn my bedroom into an office!

Then he showed me a huge corner desk!

Tayton: what do you think about that one?
Me: that it would cost a ton!
Tayton: okay we can just try to build one then. But I'm going to need one of those doors with the bars on it once my room is an office.

We Practice Halloween in Our House

This year has been sad for me. I like to make the boys Halloween costumes. Now don't be mistaken! I don't SEW! But I am quite handy with a hot glue gun! Last year the boys wanted to be robots. I spent a couple hours and this is what I came up with:

With real blinking lights and rocket packs that glowed red from the bottoms and also held their candy!

But this year....nope they wanted cheapo store bought costumes. I managed to guilt talk Tayton out of the cheapo costume by bribing him with a homemade (by someone else on EBay) Ash Ketchem (famous Pokemon Trainer) costume. Korbin was going to be Tayton's Pikachu but that didn't work out fast enough so he got to choose a cheapo costume. Lucky for me he decided to be a puppy! This makes me much happier than if he were to choose to be one of the costumes on the shelf that everyone else is size would be wearing.


This past weekend our local Shrine Club hosted their Halloween bash and the kids dressed for the occasion. This is where we go to practice Halloween. The kids get dressed up so we get to modify the costumes as needed to actually look good on Halloween night and at our other few Halloween festivities. My sweet Korbin couldn't just be a sweet puppy though. He put his Frankenstein hoodie under it and was the transformable FrankenPup!


He did tell me he'd be a little girl for Halloween but it's too late! I am fresh out of little girls dresses and tiara's! Next year for sure!

Just Run Me Over and Toss Me to the Pigs

Someone told me on our field trip the other day that the MOB sometimes grinds up the bodies of their victims and then feed it to the pigs because the pigs will eat the bones and all. So if you would kindly back over me with your vehicle and then grind me in a mulcher or something similar and toss me to the pigs I'd appreciate it!

These boys are wearing me down! It's going on ten o'clock and they are awake acting like maniacs! I'm pretty sure my head could explode at any given moment if I hear them say "excuse me mom I just want to ask you something" one.more.time!

That's all.

I'll come back in a little while and post a real post that might make sense....or not.

Really? Another One?

I have said it before and I'll say it again! I have a sick addiction to vacuum's! I love the colors and styles and sounds they make. I love the tracks on the floor after a good run with the vacuum. I love the attachments and the way that even if my house is a disaster all I have to do is hide the mess in the laundry room, run the vacuum and people think I cleaned!





Why am I acting so crazy you might be wondering? Well the girls over at SITS are it again!





They are giving away one of these:

And I want to win!

You can enter to win too!

When you see this button leave a comment! That's what SITS is all about!

She Did What?

Yep that's right I did it. The boys wanted to play with the chinchillas. I let them out and put up their little fence. Tayton was sitting in there with them on the floor building them a tower with waffle blocks. Next thing I know the dogs took off running and I just knew they were after a chinchilla. I was right. Poor Chimchar just hasn't learned The dogs tried to get her again! I am not spending that much money on a dog treat! They are too expensive to be eaten!

I was busy working on something for Kirke on my computer (he reads this otherwise I'd share it with you guys) and I couldn't stop to have chinchilla time. The boys weren't watching them close enough to let them play in the penned in area.

I told them if they wanted to play with Pikachu and Chimchar they had to do it where they were going to be safe.

So they did.

Korbin jumped at the chance to go on in and play.

Tayton was still building with the waffle blocks so he didn't join in the fun for a few more minutes. But soon he was playing too.


The boys thought they were really doing something great!

The chinchillas were very curious about their cage mates.

Look they each get their own floor of the chimichanga condo!

We're definitely getting our money back outta this cage. Korbin asked to sleep in there with the chinchillas. At one point Korbin wanted a drink so Tayton brought him a bottle of water with a straw. He took his drinks through the bars! It was so funny!

We had a good day today!

What The Heck is That?

I plugged my memory card into my computer to get the pictures of the dogs and the chimichangas the other night and I found some pictures I had never seen. This means I certainly did not take them.

I am always afraid to pick up a friends camera and look at the photos in them or on their computer because my friends are pervs very private people. But I've never feared my own memory card.

I laughed my tail off when this is what I found.

Why? Why would hey need to take a picture of this? Thank god there wasn't anything there. Too bad my lens cap was dangling!! GRRRRR!!
This IS NOT all we have in the fridge I swear! I fed them last week geesh give me a break!
Now you all know that I need to clean the oven. Thanks Korbin!
This is how I knew Korbin was the guilty party, well at least involved, Tayton had to have helped but this is Korbins buddy Memphis. He's had Memphis since he was probably a year old or less maybe.

This one speaks for itself........or not at all. Why would he do this?



Now on to my two favorites and when I know Tayton had to have helped out too!

This is Scrappy and Korbin hanging out......upside down in my camera!

This is my favorite. They captured Korbin being his true self!

Naughty little blond boys!

Are You Sure You Aren't Hurt Mom?

I was running around doing last minute things tonight before tucking the naughty little blond boys into their beds. I went into the kitchen and as I stepped over the baby gate door opening (used for other peoples kids not my own cause they have been climbing them since they were two) I stepped onto a plastic hanger that slid across the floor and I went with it. I fell into the hallway onto the carpet thankfully. The boys saw me fall and came running to me.


Tayton: Mom are you okay?


Me: Yes


Tate: Are you sure?


Me: Yes


Then he decided to help me up and kiss me.


Tate: Do you need help to make it up the stairs in case you're hurt?


Me: No I'm fine go get in bed I'll be right up.


Tate: Ok Mom.


Korbin: Are you sure you're okay?


Me: Yes I'm sure now get your butt in bed!


Korb: Did you hurt your boobs?


Me: WHAT??


Korb: Well they are lookin a little flattened!


Me: (trying to maintain my composure) Good night Korbin!

I'm pretty sure my boobs have not looked flattened since I was about 11! Guess he'll have high expectations of his women when he grows up!


Then I went into the bathroom to take out the trash and straighten up and that's when I saw this:



So I had to call both boys down and find out who took the screws out and where they were! Guess which naughty boy it was? Yep, it was Korbin. But don't let Tayton fool you. He once took a screwdrive through the entire house and removed every screw he could find. This included the little latch plates on the doors, apparently coolers have screws too.



Korbin brought me the screws and the screw driver and told me "here they are, they just came out of me!" What the heck does that mean? Doesn't' matter, I washed my hands after I put the screws back into the wall plate.


WOW!

I decided to introduce the dogs to the chinchillas tonight. I set up the little play area for the chinchillas and I let the dogs watch from outside the fence for a minute. Then I let Scrappy come in and lay next to me while the chinchillas played. They did really good so we let Allie join us. Here are some pictures. These chinchillas are not afraid of my dogs one little bit!

Super Silly Supper

We do strange things in this house.


I took part in the the My Favorite Things swap hosted by Sunshine and Lemonade at the beginning of the month. One of my gifts was a book called Great Kids are Homemade. It has all sorts of off the wall ideas on having family fun. Many are for meal times.

We decided to use the Mystery Meal idea. We modified it to fit our needs and this is what we ended up with:


First we planned a menu. Amber, Brandy and I decided we would use spaghetti. Keep in mind we had to feed 7 kids with no help from the dads cause they all decided they should be HERE instead.


We wrote out menus for each kid. The fun part was that we renamed almost everything. We didn't want them to know what we were having and it got really silly. We also added their eating tools to the menu with hopes of them choosing them first before their first second and third options.

Here is our menu:

• Plate..............Plate


• Cup................Cup (I know we're super creative like that)


• Wigglers.......Spaghetti noodles


• Drippers.......Sauce


• Sours.............Lemonade (not the best choice with spaghetti by the way)


• Uppers..........Fork


• Washy...........Napkin


• Flakies..........Parmesan Cheese


• Crusties........Garlic Bread


• Slurpers.......Straw (we used cups with lids so they couldn't drink till they had their slurpers)

When everyone arrived we took each kid into the dining room one by one to hand them their menu and explain the rules. The kids had to put a number 1 next to the first four items they'd like to receive. This meant some of them got Drippers (sauce) before their noodles. Or Parmesan cheese before everything else. It was a lot of fun. Then they had to place a number 2 by three items and a number 3 by the remaining items.

We made sure everyone had plate and cup listed as 1's but the rest varied. We served the dinner in three steps. We gave everyone their four items they listed as 1's and then waited in between and laughed and joked about why they weren't eating their sauce yet. Then we served the two's and waited in between. A couple of the kids asked for their fork last and ate with their fingers for a few minutes. And some only had sauce, Parmesan cheese and lemonade until we filled the #3 requests!

We called it Super Silly Supper and everyone loved it. We decided we'd do it once a month with different dinner ideas like taco's or sandwiches.

Here are some pictures. My little Tayton who a year ago could not stand anything on his hands ate spaghetti with his hands until the third round when he finally got his fork! I was so proud! That's a huge milestone for my SI kiddo!






It was so much fun!

Meet Jamie! You're gonna Love this!

A friend of mine has decided to use her awesome talents to make some extra money! She is creating custom designed Christmas Cards/invitations. She creates the design for you and all you have to do is upload it to walmart.com or the online printshop of your choice and have your cards ordered! It's simple and inexpensive!

Visit Jamies Website here and say hi!