Eggcellent Mess

It was an eggcellent mess. Gotta say there's nothing better to cap off a morning full of gross diapers, four loads of laundry, snotty noses, answering phone calls, work needing to be done but not being able to get to it than the most lovely mess Kyle created for me this morning. I had been out of the kitchen no more than 90 seconds and I heard Grant say "uh oh, Kyle. That's a bad no-no. You need to go to time-out" (hmmm, wonder who he listens to all day long!).

Let the pictures speak for themselves.

That would be 12 jumbo eggs. Lovingly taken out of the refrigerator shelf. And the pictures don't capture the amount of yolk and egg whites that are scattered (much less egg shell crumbs!) across the floor. I am very thankful that I deferred my upset attitude towards him until I ran to get a few pictures to capture the moment. So, not only was mopping the kitchen floor yesterday fun, but it was fun to do again today after about 10 paper towels to sop up the ick.

Kids. Truly, a joy. Jason and I are so blessed.

Early Bird Gets the...Bug!

The Christmas bug, that is. On my last trip to the neighborhood Wallyworld, I had just started selecting my produce when I heard faint music playing in the background... It was holiday tunes! Not only was it holiday music, the song playing was religious and about Christmas. My heart was very happy and I found myself humming and singing to Kyle on the bread aisle and near the yogurts. Sometimes an occasional skip or little dance was included. I'm sure the security cameras captured us, and if they were bored in the security room, at least got a chuckle from us!

I'm a sucker for Christmas. Not so much the present-side, but the decorations, baking, smells, fellowship with distant family and variety of activities. So, yes, I am three weeks early to be putting my background as Christmas ornaments and playing Bing Crosby and Diana Krall, but here it is - at least I'm smiling when I sign in to my blog!

My house is decorated for Thanksgiving and I am usually one to roll my eyes when the candy aisle is full of red and green candies when I try to buy something for Halloween - not to mention Hobby Lobby's early jump on things.

Let's not forget to celebrate the fall and turkey day but...

Merry Early Christmas!

When Money Matters

It's a pretty known fact that I am what could be considered a Numbers Nerd. If there are numbers involved, I enjoy it. My favorite subjects were math and physics, the best part of any of my jobs has been the math portion, including the bookkeeping for the pharmacy and now for our office. Therefore, it only makes sense that I love this product! It's Quicken Online and is a FREE tool to help track spending, create a family budget, create categories and view transactions. To get started, all you need is your bank account information (you can also manage investments, multiple accounts, etc - we just do our main checking through this program). The program is FUN for me to do but it is good for Jason, who is not a math-nut, to review our finances (when I show him!) for his awareness.

If you don't have a process of tracking your spending or watching a budget, if needed, I strongly suggest it! Let me know if you have questions.

One of those weeks...

Quick recap of our past 5 days -

• Our 15 month old refrigerator quit sealing shut. Two repairmen have not been able to fix it. It is 3 months out of warranty.
• Our 4 year old "quiet series" dishwasher has developed a piercing screak and shrill during loads and stinks so incredibly bad when you open it.
• Our 4-5 year old dryer gets way hot very quickly and then shuts down. The soonest that repairman (of course, the fridge man can't fix the dryer) can come out is next Friday, making it two weeks w/o a dryer.
• Some kids stole our PUMPKINS! We had 4 different "scenes" in our yard and they got all but our front porch. The kicker is that we heard car doors shut and a car take off - thought it was the teens next door - apparently not!
• Speaking of laundry and dryer - Grant did decide to wet his bed two nights ago, making it a long day of drying sheets and a queen quilt w/o a dryer - lots of hanging in the garage.

Good Luck to Big Kyle today as he is "Locked Up" for MDA!

New Do

Mr. Toe-head has a little less hair than a few days ago. It may be white, but Kyle's hair was getting scraggly. I think I should have been a hairdresser because I really do enjoy cutting all 3 of my guy's hair (who can really mess up on Jason's anyways?!?! just kidding, honey - I love you!).

Kyle sat perfectly still and actually giggled a lot. Crazy me let him hold the mini-razor that zoomed through Grant's hair a few months ago leaving a stripe - it was centimeters from happening again! We did have to do this while Grant was at school; otherwise, they would have been wrestling amidst the electric clippers.

The back looks better - less fuzz. You can't tell a bit on top since it's soooo light. What a trooper!

Before After

Halloween and HOOPla

Top Five List from the Last Two Weeks:
5. My first attempt at making a Halloween costume is complete (whew!)

4. Clint was able to carve his first pumpkin with us on our driveway

3. OSU shoots off a new basketball era.

2. NoBama becomes the newest US President-Elect

1. Trick-or-Treating with these two little boys becomes the highlight for us. They were so polite and even tried to go into every house we visited to stay longer! Kyle kept his cowboy hat on the entire time!

Giddy-up Cowboy

Avery, Kyle and Grant
(out of order) week of Halloween - Carving pumpkins with friends

He SNUCK this while driving home from visiting Brett and Gabi. CAUGHT!

It's been a fun few weeks. We've had Halloween and we've, as in OSU fans, hopefully just had the first of many, many basketball wins under our new coach, Travis Ford. Our family, thanks to the Halls and Metcalfs, were all able to go last night. The crowd wasn't great but it was fun to see the speed and intensity change from the last few years. It was good ball, and I was actually paying more attention to it than to fellow crowd members! :) The floor is new, too - thankful it was the option with both Pete and Eddie's names - as seen below (I obviously JUST missed the shot with Pistol Pete facing us and talking to the boys).