if you've got it- flaunt it

brig found another useful way to make the most of his special features! that boy rocks.

his basketball tryouts began last night. they last two stinkin weeks! torture. preston's wrestling season officially began last night also. he informed me that i would HATE his coach. (i hate all high school sports, and usually the coaches as well.) but i deal with it, even though i'm not sure if that is the right thing to do or not.

"it all comes of not having front doors big enough"

we extracted the honey yesterday. it took approximately 10 hours- due to massive complications with the extractor we rented. we ended up with 25 lbs. of honey. we were told we had about 40 lbs. in our hive. we realize we must have wasted a lot. (in not knowing exactly what we were doing) however- we were the only ones who harvested any at all. cheryl and gerald's hive is almost completely dead, and our friends trent and lisa's aren't doing much better. it was insanely messy!!! we had honey every where!

i think we'll be much better at it next year. and hopefully we'll get more honey.

Halloween 2009

from halloween night- a skunk, dracula, and firefighter. (quince was supposed to be frankenstein, but he wimped out and wouldn't let me paint his face green.)

from the night of our party, after it was over and we were looking a little spent.

notice the awesome fear factor sign in the back. james and abby were awesome and did so much for the party!!! amy came and helped get all of the food together the day of. i absolutely couldn't have pulled this off on my own.

i wish i had better pictures of the table. i had so many compliments at church about how great the whole place looked. one couple (their opinion mattered to me) told me that it was the best party they had been to in a long, long time.

and although these pics don't do justice to brig's fantastic make-up or preston's sparkly chest, this was the *twilight* of the evening for me. i loved their costumes. mostly because we actually pulled it off. brig wore crutches and his knee was wrapped. spencer's hair was darkened black, although you can't tell, and preston had the pants, converse, and sparkly skin from the movie.

it was the best halloween we've had in years. i'm already planning what will and i want to be next year. :) and for the record- will tried to eat a worm. (chewed it and all) and i tried to get down a dog biscuit. it was far more diguisting than i had anticipated. but hey- james almost puked with a jar of baby food. so we're all pathetic.

***thanks everyone: for all of your decorating, painting, planning, shopping, baking, cape-sewing, ideas, and for coming to our party! you guys are awesome.

Goonies Never Say Die

The trip to Astoria was really great! I've found myself wanting to go back several times- it was peaceful yet fun, and my only responsibility was me. I finished my book, started two others, and watched lots of Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell movies. (And Goonies, of course.) We hiked near lighthouses, shopped antique stores, visited museums- it was completely worth the drive. :)

Will and I had a good drive up there, stayed in a super nice hotel in Portland, had dinner at Claim Jumper (which we don't have in Utah) and then he flew home Sunday. It worked out really well. But now we're home and reality has hit me again, only worse. Our home is completely torn apart and it looks like a war zone here, but give us about two weeks and hopefully it will all be over. And we'll have a lovely, yellow home. :)

fractured coccyx?

my life has slowed down, finally. yay! i've been hanging out at home, trying to read, and taking it easy. we leave for portland on saturday and will flies back home sunday. i'll be driving home with a friend thursday. i hope this girls trip offers just what i'm hoping for. lots of down time. no schedule to keep and nobody else to take care of but ME! i've bought about 8 books to read while i'm gone. (wishful thinking.)

we're getting ready to paint our house. the main color is going to go from the taupe it is, to a butter yellow color. i'm nervous we're going to strongly regret it. we are almost to a point where we're ordering the carpet. i'm so excited to get rid of this gross garbage we've had for 6 long years- but i really hate spending the money. all of a sudden i have about 5 home improvement projects i'd like to do- but the others will have to wait. maybe not the oven- that one is really more of a need than a want. :)

before i go- i'll share one more funny story- this one about myself. two days ago quincey and linc were home playing while i was doing laundry. they were sliding down the stairs in a small, nylon sleeping bag. quince kept trying to get linc to go down, but linc was afraid. quince wanted me to slide down with linc but i explained it wouldn't work. so we decided i would just show linc that it was easy and no big deal. so i got in the bag, and instead of laying down in it like quincey was, i thought i'd be smart and sit up with my legs and rear in it and just slide down like a slide. about two stairs down i realized this was a very bad idea, but i couldn't stop myself because i was flying and my legs were in the bag. it was probably the most painful two seconds of my life. when i hit the bottom and stopped, i was in so much pain i couldn't even speak. it took about 10 minutes for me to get up and walk back up the stairs. i seriously thought i had injured myself to the point where a doctor was going to need to be involved and i couldn't think of what i'd say to them. (i was sliding down my stairs in a sleeping bag???)

the sad part is i haven't been able to move around really great, it hurts like heck to stand up or sit down, and i've got to spend 12 hours in the car on saturday!! i'm going to have to get one of those donut pillows. as will told the boys- "mom's injured her coccyx." and man- did i ever!!

funny story

today i spent the afternoon and evening making cookies. lots and lots of them. sad part is, i'm probably only half way! in between baking and washing dishes, i started reading the lost symbol- dan brown's new novel that came out yesterday. i have been anxiously awaiting this book, because of my fascination of freemasons and that kind of stuff. i'm only on page 75. so far it's just like his others. interesting. anyway- i wanted to share a funny story.

the other day spencer called home from school in the morning and explained he had forgotten his p.e. bag (with his clothes he wears) and asked if brigham could bring them when he comes to school. (spence goes earlier than the other boys because of early morning seminary.) so brig ran downstairs and grabbed some clothes and brought the bag to school for spence. during p.e. spencer comes walking out of the locker room in an extremely tight shirt and pants that fit almost like spandex and capris. everyone, including the p.e. coach were completely cracking up- and spence was about ready to kill brigham. brig didn't do it on purpose, but apparently he had a really good time with it. the p.e. coach told spence if she could she would've paid him to wear those clothes the whole day. he tried them on for me today to show me what he looked like. he wouldn't let me take a picture. it would've been priceless. only spence could walk away from an experience like that unharmed. :) most kids wouldn't even have left the locker room looking like that.

i'm guessing he won't be forgetting his gym clothes any time soon.

This is coming up. I just thought I'd give you guys a heads up. Abby- are you going to be out of town for sure? We'll be delivering the invites tonight and tomorrow. I was going to mail them, but procrastinated....again.

It's been a crazy busy week. I'm so glad it's the weekend- and I've got NOTHING on the agenda for today. So I'll be cleaning and baking. And making pesto. Yet again. But this time I'm using spinach and walnuts as well as the regular. I'm not sure which one is better.