And the Winner Is.....

Thanks to everyone who voted.  I appreciate the help.  Picture number 1 was the overall winner.  I guess now I get to work on ways to get the window out of the background.  Since this post was orginally done, my lovely and awesome sister in law Tammy has taken the window out for me.  Thanks Tammy!  You are the best. 
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It is cold.  Really, really cold.  I think it hit a high of 38 degrees today.  The kids are home and I am supposed to be supervising their homework, but I don't feel like yelling right now so I am letting them do their own thing.  May I say, (I have jumped on my soapbox) kids these days have entirely too much homework.  It is absolutely ridiculous how much time is spent around the kitchen table getting them to finish worksheet after worksheet.  I don't want anymore landfill fodder brought home because my kids achieved some new level of mediocrity at school.  Do they really need a toy because they showed up to school?  I feel so bad for Daniel because he was sick last week.  Why does he need to be so buried under all this work because he was sick?  Ahhhhhh!
I am done.  Thanks again for the help!

The Only Thing Holding Us Back Is Ourselves

We have been in possesion of a water softener since 2004.  We had plans to install it at our last house but obviously we put it off.  So, we moved it with us when we came north.  It has been occupying space in our basement along with the brother we got for it, a new hot water heater, since we moved here.  It is amazing how long these things can sit around without us noticing how much time has passed.  They became such a fixture in the basement, we hardly noticed them anymore.  The only time they would be mentioned was when the hot water ran out in our shower. 
We finally got the soft water unit and the hot water heater installed two days ago.  You never really know how far gone something is in your house, until you replace it with a new one.  I cannot believe how bad our other water heater was!  We have hot water now.  Really hot water.  And a water softener.  I did some laundry yesterday and the clothes actually came clean!  I love it! 
The basement looks palatial now with those giant boxes gone.  They are in the backyard now awaiting decorations for Daniel's much anticipated, haunted house.  I am sure Leanne is happy to have them out of her way too.  It is so sad that we put things off and put them off until we are forced to make it a priority.  Then, after taking care of the problem, we wonder why we waited so long in the first place. 
Alan and I have been trying to be better about this and not put things off.  Especially things like installing new equipment to make the water in our house better.  We learn to live with mediocrity in our lives slowly.  Occasionally our lives go BOING!, and we have to pay attention.  But usually we experience a slow decline and get use to lowering ourselves on the descent one rung at a time.  Life becomes very organic when you start making choices to pay attention to the things that matter and let go of the other stuff that is constantly screaming at us from all of those outside sources. 
I can honestly say that we have been happier as we have tried to limit the wants and deal with the needs in a more responsible way.  It has helped us to overcome our procrastination and become more creative as we use our talents ways we couldn't see otherwise. 
In the past we would have taken any extra money that came our way and use it in some small way for our needs but mostly it would be used to fulfill our wants and in a big way.  It has been so gratifying to see our needs list get checked off as we attempt to be wise about our lives and take care of the things that really matter.  Experiment on this, you might surprise yourself.

Pumpkin Picking

We had a fun Saturday!  We were going to go to the free pumpkin patch, but the line was a mile long in the sun and it was 75 degrees out and we were hot!  I know, all you Arizona people can stop laughing now.  On our way to get some money to go to the other pumpkin patch, we were distracted by Chik-fil-A.  It was yummy too!  We were at the mall eating when I decided since we were so close to Macy's, perhaps I could just take a look.  They happen to have some professional make-up artists there doing Halloween face painting for free.  Well, of course we had to do it.  The kids looked great.  As usual, nothing can go too smoothly or the planets might fall off their rotations.
Alan and the boys were playing video games at Game Stop while Sarah and I were waiting in the line to get a Lady Bug painted on her cute little face.  Sarah has been working on her two loose front teeth for a while now and hasn't wanted any help.  On Saturday her right front tooth was just barely hanging in there.  Grandma Leanne showed up with a giant bag of caramel corn which Sarah jumped right into.  Her first bite pulled that tooth right out of her mouth.  Most kids are happy when their teeth finally come out but she looked a bit horrified.  It may have been all of the blood.  There was more than usual for a loose tooth.  I think she nicked her gums with the popcorn.  Anyway, we were trying to get her mouth to stop bleeding when the boys and Alan showed up, just in time.  Sarah got a glazed look on her face and went all green.  I asked her if she was alright and she was sort of non responsive.  I looked over at Alan and had him pick her up just before she went a little limp.  She didn't completely pass out, but was on her way.  We learned that Sarah has a hard time seeing her own blood yesterday.  That is good to know for the future.

After Sarah's little episode, she was ready to get her face painted.  Daniel had already had his done and Jacob was getting worked on.  He had asked to look like a dinosaur had scratched his face.  Well, he didn't realize that the guy doing his make-up did the make-up for the injured people in the mock disaster drills the government holds from time to time.  He was really good and it looked real!  Jacob saw himself in the mirror and he started turning green and got light headed.  Apparently, he and Sarah suffer from the same affliction.  We had him sit down with his head between his knees until he could get up and go outside for some air.  It took some time for him to get used to the gore on his face.   It looks pretty cool, eh?

After the kids were done almost fainting from their fake injuries-well Sarah's tooth was real-we went to the pumpkin patch.

On the hayride of course!

The mountains look great.

Sarah picked a cute little one.

Daniel picked one as big as him.  Jacob has big muscles now so he helped his little bro.

Alan was nice enough to pick mine up for me.  He has big muscles too!

Farmer John and his little woman.

Disruptions

I love how your going along in life and everything is fine and then bam!, a train wreck.  The thing about a train wreck is you get to survive, but are severely maimed.  So, there is a constant supply of new normal to get used to.
My computer finally croaked.  I went to turn it on and the on button just fell into the computer.  Thankfully we had just gotten a little extra money and were making plans for it but something always breaks when a little extra money comes our way so we weren't terribly surprised.  I took the computer down to the computer store, bought another one and have been working just about everyday for the last week on reloading all of our software programs so we can use the new computer.  I hate doing this.  I am pretty sure all of my files are a complete loss.  My pictures are gone too.  I have them backed up but haven't gotten to that disk yet.  and am pretty sure they aren't all there.  The funnest part so far has been trying to get my checkbook to balance after reloading it.  Yesterday it said we had a negative $2300 balance.  Today I think we are up $4000.  I miss paper and writing and doing things slower and more deliberate.  I think that is why I enjoy cooking so much.  I don't want a 30 minute meal.  They don't taste that great.  I want something that took effort and love to create.  I am pretty sure the checkbook will finally balance out tomorrow.  That will be good.
Jacob was thrilled about getting a new computer.  The funny thing is, my kids have only recently discovered the computer has a few games loaded onto it, specifically Solitaire.  They are addicted and ask all the time now if they can play.  These are the same kids that spent the last year earning money to buy a Wii.  We could have avoided all of the anguish associated with their having to wait so long if I would have shown them Solitaire earlier. However, they learned a great lesson about saving up for something you want.
Jacob asked if he could have what was left over from the computer merge.  I had the computer guys save what they could from the old one and combine it with the new one to make one super computer.  The new one is so fast and great.  I gave Jacob the old computer but I should have saved it for Christmas.  He plays with it everyday.  It is great.  He has computer innerds all over his desk and is constantly coming out of his room to show me another part he has taken out.  I am tempted to go to the DI for Christmas and buy some other computer things and let him take those apart too.
Sarah's two front teeth are ready to come out and she looks all snaggle toothed.  The one tooth is barely hanging on and Daniel can hardly control himself.  He really wants to grab her head and rip it out.  They have both been home sick today.  Daniel really is sick.  He has a cold, but the school made me come and get him and I had to get him tested for the piggy flu.  He's clear thankfully.  Sarah on the other hand, has a sympathy cold and will be going back to school tomorrow.  It is amazing how fast you can get used to your kids being gone during the day.  I got a lot done but I need some separation now.  Alan will rescue me!

It's Autumn Time, It's Autumn Time.....

Sarah and her friend Ashely helped me to make some luminaries out of our #10 cans.  They have been sitting in my kitchen forever and I finally came up with a way to use them.  I posted the entire project on my other website if you are interested in the finished product.  It was pretty fun and gave me something to do with the kids one day.  

 

You actually have to prepare for seasons here so Alan got up on our roof to repair some shingles before the snow comes.  It is pretty scary up there.  We have a heck of pitch to our roof and so I kept watch in case he fell.  You know, so I could watch him fall. I am not sure what watching helped with because if he did fall off the roof, I wouldn't exactly be able to help him other than calling the ambulance.

 
Alan brought home this huge net last year and it has been up on the trees and then taken down a few times.  The boys decided it was time to put it up again only this time they made it look like a giant spider web.  It is strung between two trees in our backyard and has become quite the attraction for other kids in the neighborhood.  We had a whole crew show up last Sunday asking if they could play while we were inside watching conference.  It was cute.  I said no of course.
I figured they will leave it up until it snows.  Is it just me or do my kids look absolutely huge?!

We are all gearing up for the leaves to fall from the trees again.  I'll post pictures when its time.  The leaf raking at our house is epic!