Chicago Caper

We hosted a murder mystery party a couple of weekends ago and I am finally getting around to blogging about it. We invited 3 other couples over to play a "How to Host a Murder" game with us.

"Molly and Billy"

"Socks" and "Silky" a.k.a the MURDERER

(The home-made golf club was a nice touch, don't you think?)

"Scoop" and "Ernie"

"Torchy" and "Harrow"

The "murder" took place in Chicago in 1927. We had lots of fun talking about bathtub hooch, Tommy guns, flappers, and all sorts of other slang from the era. The food was good (if I do say so myself), the company was great and the game was pretty fun. It DID get confusing at times because all the characters were SO intertwined and everyone had a reason to murder "Hal Coppone". Despite the game which was confusing and truthfully, a bit long, it was fun to dress up and have have a fun date without kids around. We especially enjoyed "Torchy" and her fabulous accent(s). We sure hope that our friends will host a party sometime and invite US... (hint hint)

True Love

I was snuggling in bed this morning with Ian and he said this to me:

"Mom, you are my true love."

**pause**

"Actually, you are MY true love and I am YOUR true love."

****************

"This is true love - you think this happens every day?"

~Wesley, Princess Bride

Tagged!

I have been tagged by my sister-in-law Michelle.

6 quirky things about me:

1. Garbage disposals frighten me. If something gets stuck down there I will avoid reaching down into that black hole of slime at all costs.

2. I hate wearing socks in the kitchen. I either have to have bare feet or shoes on. I hate stepping on water or food.

3. I like to drink pickle juice.

4. I HATE walking on sidewalks after it rains because of all the worms that come out. I hate stepping on worms.

5. I hate particle chicken. At fast food restaurants I have to ask if their chicken sandwich is a fillet or "particle chicken". Surprisingly, many people are confused about what constitutes particle chicken and I have to explain that particle chicken is like particle board. It is chicken that is chopped up into little tiny pieces and squashed back together again.

6. I like to sleep in total darkness and silence. I wear earplugs in the summertime when I have to sleep with the windows open and other times when there is noise. I always wear earplugs at night when I travel.

I tag:
DD, Meg M. Megan B. Leilani, and Marcy (and everyone else who is quirky)

Happy Birthday Ian!

Ian turned 4 last week! I waited to blog about it because we went bowling last night as part of the celebration and I wanted to have pictures to blog with. Unfortunately I forgot to bring the camera for the bowling trip so I don't have any photos of that.

We went to Winger's for Ian's birthday dinner. We had actually been planning on going to Wendy's because that is what Ian wanted for his birthday dinner. Instead of having a friend party Ian decided he wanted to go bowling with the family and Amy (my best friend/old college roommate). I called the bowling alley to find out if they were open for regular bowling and they said it was league night. So, we changed the plan and decided to go to Winger's since it would take longer and we had a free kids meal coupon for Ian's birthday.

All the kids were really good at the restaurant and we had a good time. After that we came home for cake and ice cream.

Last night we all went bowling and we had a great time. There were lots and lots of very interesting people there that night (and I am sure every night). The lady in the lane to the left of us to us kept videotaping her family bowling and we thought that was a bit interesting. We learned later that she had a son on a mission who loved bowling. Hopefully he enjoys watching video of his BROTHERS bowling as much as he enjoys bowling. The people on the right of us were also recording their bowling adventures for posterity including several close up photos of the scoreboard. I am not sure why. I guess I was the loser of the night who forgot to bring the camera.

We (the kids) realized that REAL bowling is not nearly as easy as Wii bowling, and that it is really hard to bowl even WITH the bumpers and the ball ramp. I'd love to tell you the final score but unfortunately we didn't get to finish our game. We rented the lane for 1 hour (family night special) and our hour ran out when we were in the middle of the 10th frame. And no, they didn't let us finish. No, there weren't any other people in line and yes, I was annoyed. See if *I* ever go bowling THERE again... The kids seemed to have a good time though so it was a fun night even though we didn't get to finish.

Here are some pictures of my sweet Birthday boy:

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Linda's Apron

I just got done making this apron for my sis Linda. I loved the fabrics on this one so I wanted to post a picture of it. Happy B-day sis!

I Love...

My blog. Yeah. It's true. After having a few of "those days" where I am wondering what the heck I am doing with my life it is good to come here and read some of my previous posts and remember that:

1. I am very blessed
2. I have an awesome life that is totally fun. (Well, ok, my life isn't totally fun all the time but it IS awesome SOME of the time.)
3. I love my family more than anything in the world
4. I have wonderful, fun, amazing friends who I couldn't live without

Thanks to all you awesome friends and family who read and comment on my blog. It really makes my day to think that someone out there would care about what I am doing and spend time reading about my life's adventures.

Halloween---Finally.

We DID celebrate Halloween. We didn't have a camera though. We finally got the new camera so today I made the kids dress up in their costumes so I could take their pictures. I really wish I could have taken a picture of my cool Jack-o-Lantern but it got squishy and I had to throw it away. There's always next year right?

Pictures

The other day I was telling my good friend Kirsten how badly we needed to have some family pictures taken. She loves to do photography as a hobby and she offered to take some family photos for us. Saturday was a beautiful sunny day she took lots of pictures of the family and of the kids individually. Unfortunately none of the family shots turned out. Elise was doing some sort of grimacy smile and there was always someone uncooperative in the photos. We may have to try again to get a better family picture. We did get some nice ones of the kids though. Thanks Kirsten!

Coupon-Mania Part 2

I am so excited because got a present in the mail today. Well, I guess it isn't really a present because I bought it for myself, but it is exciting nonetheless. Today I got 25 8-pocket page protectors. (I think on the nerd scale these are right up there with normal pocket protectors). I ordered these about a week ago because my coupon system wasn't working as smoothly as I wanted it to. I was just keeping the coupons in regular page protectors according to category. It was hard to see exactly what I had in there and I had to dig around to find the ones I was looking for. It wasn't too efficient so I upgraded my system. I still have all my coupons in my notebook according to category but I can see every single thing I have in there. I think it will make my shopping easier and less time consuming.

Rachel, you must be SO proud of me! Feel free to give me any pointers you have! I am re-inventing the wheel here.

Coupon-Mania

I have always thought "couponers" were really cool and I kept thinking that I should try it sometime. After seeing a coupon lady on the Oprah show last month who got a ton of stuff practically for free I decided to become a crazy couponer. I called a few of my older neighbors and found a few people who don't use the ads and coupons in their Sunday papers and asked them to save them for me. I started using the Pinching Your Pennies website to keep track of the sales and coupons for me and to give me advice on how to begin.

Today my coupon clipping really paid off. I am seriously SO excited for the deal that I scored today at Albertson's. They have some really awesome deals right now even if you don't have coupons. You should really check out their ad.

So, here's what I got:
21 boxes of cereal (Chex, Cheerios, Total, Golden Grahams, Trix)
4 deodorants (Dove and Degree)
4 bottles of All 32-load laundry detergent
3 Lipton onion soup mix boxes
3 Macaroni Grill pasta dinners (pasta with sauce packets and seasonings in a box)
2 jars Skippy peanut butter
2 boxes frozen Green Giant vegetables

Wanna know the total I paid?
$36.00.

I used $21.25 in manufacturer coupons on top of the store ad prices. Pretty amazing huh??? I am really really excited today about the deals I scored. The amazing thing about the Pinching Your Pennies website is that it matches the weekly store ads with the manufacturer coupons so it is really easy to get the best deal possible! Here's the link where they do that. Just scroll down about 1/4 of the page to where it says: Threads in Forum: Utah's Screaming Deals.

Hair

So I finally got my hair cut. My friend Shanette has cut several of my friends' hair and she always does a great job. I had her cut mine on Monday. Excuse the dorky self portraits.

The "Onerous Ones"

The "terrible twos" have NOTHING on the "onerous ones" at our house. It it seems that ALL my kids go through this HORRIBLE one year old stage where they just whine and cry and cry and cry some more. I am seriously about to lose my mind here. I don't know if it is some really really bad separation anxiety thing or just a serious case of the grumpies, but it seems to last for, oh, about 6-9 months.

I can remember pretty much all of my kids doing this when they were 1. I have been looking for info in books and online for this but I haven't been able to find much about the "onerous ones". They just talk about how to deal with whining 2 year olds. If my 2 year old did this I'd know what to do. I would make them talk with words and tell me what they wanted. One year olds on the other hand can't tell you what they want. I don't know if this is a "behavioral" thing or just a "developmental" thing. If it is just a normal developmental thing I guess there isn't anything I can do but wear ear plugs and try to not go insane. You'd think it would get easier the 4th time around but it doesn't. Anyone else think that the "onerous ones" are worse than the "terrible twos"?

Right after I finished this blog entry I put Adele down. Here's what happened:

Anybody want to borrow a cute and adorable 1 year old??? Just for a year or 2?

Good News

I have a couple items of good news:

1. We bought a new camera. Our old one officially kicked the bucket last week and wouldn't even turn on. We bought a new one at amazon.com and I hope we will get it early next week. When we get it I am going to make the kids put their costumes back on and pose for a photo or 2. Hopefully our Jack-o-lanterns will survive a few more days before they get all moldy because I'd like to take a picture of them too. I really liked the way mine turned out this year. I have a lot of things to catch up on once we get that new camera.

2. The fruit fly trap is working great. I got a plastic "solo" cup and put some OJ in it (with a drop of soap to break the surface tension to make the flies drown). Then I cut a piece of press 'n seal wrap and put it over the top and punched holes in it. The fruit flies love to hang out on the top of it and they do occassionally venture inside. I took a rough count of the little floaty flies and counted about 40. There are still some flying around but our numbers ARE getting smaller. I should probably change the juice in there but I think they actually like it a bit more fermented and "fragrant".