Yes, I am that crazy

I think I’m losing it.  Yesterday I finally finished up the boys’ costumes.  I am soo tired of sewing at this point, at least sewing on clone costumes. 

As I was laying in bed last night I started thinking about the costumes and the layers that they will be wearing underneath them.  (It’s snowing this morning, so I’m assuming that it will be cold tomorrow night)  I got to thinking that I don’t think the princess will be warm enough.  Maybe I should make her a little cape/jacket to go over the top.  I could run to the fabric store in the morning and get some type of fluffy fake fur stuff and make her a little jacket, because she is not wearing just any old jacket over that dress.  Oh, and maybe I could make her a little hat too.  Seriously.  Am I crazy?!?!  What’s wrong with me?!!  I just barely finished the costumes!!  What am I thinking trying to make more stuff??!!  Am I insane?!!!

I think the answer to the previous question would be yes.  Watch for pictures.  I’m sure they’ll be a little jacket in them.  I don’t know about the hat, though.

*Sigh*

Seriously.  This is really not helping with my resolve to stay focused on Halloween and not skip ahead to Christmas.

Attack of the Nerds

Hubby had a nerd party on Friday.  It was under the guise of a Windows 7 release party.  Hubby is a computer programmer, and he uses and programs with the Windows operating system.  He likes the Mac hardware, he just doesn’t like their operating system.  There was a company that was sponsoring Windows 7 release parties, and if you were picked to have one, (yes, you had to be chosen!) they gave you a free premium copy of the new software.  So, lo and behold, he was picked to host a party.  They sent us this party pack a week or two ago, and when I opened it I just laughed!  There were 4 packages of streamers, a pack of balloons, a poster, 10 gift bags with all sorts of little ad things to put in there and beverage napkins with the Windows 7 logo.  Wow, they want us to go all out for this party!

Friday night rolled around and by golly, I used all the stuff to decorate!  I blew up balloons, and put up streamers and put together the gift bags.  We even put some boxes of Nerd candy in there with little tags on them that said, “thanks for coming to our nerd party!”.  (my mom’s idea!)  I thought, “If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this right!” Of course, as soon as people started coming, I left!  I didn’t want to sit around and listen to the specs on this laptop verses that one and blah, blah, blah.  When I hear computer-speak, my eyes start glazing over, and I immediately lose interest, so I took the kids and left to go get some ice cream. 

The kind of sad thing was, the turnout wasn’t great because there were several last minute cancellations, but the few people that hubby wanted to see because he hadn’t seen them for awhile were there, so he was happy. 

I can check that off my mental list of things that I had to do, now if I can only finish up Halloween costumes!!

Wonderific!

I think I may have reached a good stage in life.  As I sit here on the computer, reading other blogs, I am directing my children to clean!  They are scurrying around putting things (mostly their crap) away, and coming and asking every once in awhile where things go.  The hubby is having a nerd party tonight (more on that at a later date) and I don’t want people to think that we live in a constant state of chaos, hence the cleaning of the house.

I’ve been thinking lately of how I think I’ve finally moved into the “my kids are older” phase, not to be confused with the “I have teenagers” phase, which is thankfully not the case yet. (I’m not that old!!)  The  “my kids are older” phase consists of kids that can get their own lunch, turn on their own entertainment, i.e., turn on the TV, X-Box, or computer, and basically handle themselves.  Of course, not everything applies to the princess, because she is only four, but I have a wonderful little invention called the oldest son.  Man, he is a great thing to have around!  He is very helpful and reliable and the great thing is, the teenage hormones haven’t kicked in completely yet, so for the most part, he is still enjoyable to have around, and still wants to hang out with us. 

I have been really enjoying the time that they have been off track.  I have been able to do glorious things like go to the grocery store by myself!  I almost feel a little smug strolling up and down the aisles while other mom’s that haven’t reached the glorious stage that I am in, deal with crying, whining, and screaming kids!  It’s amazing how I can leave the store now, not about ready to kill anyone!  It’s wonderful!

The down side to the “my kids are older” stage is now the things they want just get more expensive.  Hubby and I noticed last year after Christmas that the boys’ piles were much smaller than the princesses pile, but those smaller piles cost a heck of a lot more.  We’ve discovered that as they get bigger, their toys get smaller and more expensive.  I guess I should have known, Hubby is the biggest kid by far, and he definitely knows how to shop for small and pricey! (for himself, not for me, let’s get that straight!)

Ahh, let me bask in a few more minutes of thinking my kids are awesome before I go see what their version of clean is, and how it differs vastly from mine!

Wowza!

I don’t know if it’s just our school district, or if everyone went to  this new grading system that we are using.  I would like to know what happened to letter grades?  Do older kids still have them, and since my kids are still in elementary, we don’t?  I understand letter grades, that’s what I grew up with.  Is a letter grade too detrimental to a child’s fragile self confidence, so they don’t use them anymore?  (that’s a whole ‘nother soap box.  I might have to let hubby do a guest post on the practice of giving everyone a trophy when they play soccer, because heaven forbid, someone feels like they didn’t win.  I know, it’s appalling to think that we might teach our kids that they are not going to win in every situation in life, and maybe possibly teach them how they should deal with failure.  Aahh!!  Banish the thought!!)

Let’s see, what was I talking about?  Oh yes, report cards!  As you may or may not know, my kids are off track right now.  This would be the end of their first quarter, so they got their report cards.  G-man got his on the day they went off track.  His was pretty good, but he’s having some issues with not finishing his work at school, so it probably wasn’t as good as it good be.  TRMinator’s teacher told him she would be mailing his to him because she wasn’t quite finished with them yet.

Well, they had been out for a week and he  still hadn’t gotten it yet.  Only TRMinator would worry about that!  Most kids could care less, but my big guy was concerned.  I’ve known his teacher for about 12 years now, and she is in our ward, so we went up to her on Sunday and asked what the hold up was.  She said he should be getting it soon, and lo and behold, she appeared on our doorstep Tuesday evening with report card in hand.  (we get our report card hand delivered by our teacher!  Do you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing?  hmmmm)  I’m not usually too worried about what I’ll see when I open TRMinator’s grades.  He’s a pretty conscientious and hard working student.  I’m not sure that I’ve even seen this before, though.

I don’t know if you can see that or not, but that is pretty much a perfect report card.  They are graded on a number scale with 3 being the highest.  Yep, he got all threes.  Usually he gets some 2.5’s  or some 2.75’s, but not this time.   All 3’s.  Yep, I think he takes after me!   HA!!!! HA!!!!!!!

Shhhh! Don’t tell Halloween I’m here!!

I’m sitting here at the computer because I’m trying to hide from Halloween.  Remember how I said I was going to attempt to make the G-man a Star Wars clone trooper for Halloween?  Well, I am, and it’s not going too bad, it’s just not fun to do.  I am making it up as I go along, so I have to try it on him a lot, which he’s not too happy about, and it’s just not a lot of fun.  Have I mentioned that already?  Costumes are supposed to be fun to make, and this one isn’t.  The extra joyous thing is that I get to make TRMinator one also once I’m done with G-man’s.  Whoopee!

I really want to start on Christmas instead.  I always make the kids jammies every year that they open on Christmas Eve.  This year I’m making them robes also.  I’ve already got the fleece for the robes and I really want to make those instead right now.  It’s taking everything I have not to drop these dumb clone costumes like a hot potato and start on the robes instead.  I’m trying to remind myself that Halloween is in 2 weeks and that I have 2 months till Christmas.  It’s not working very well,  so I hid that material away, so I don’t look at it longingly too much.

Alright, here I go. (deep sigh)  I’m going to go thread that needle again and try and knock this thing out.  May the force be with me!

Our adventure with nature

Since my boys are off track for the next four weeks, we decided to take a little adventure.  We went to the Ogden Nature Center.  (I know, pretty adventurous)  I had never been there, but both my boys had.  They go there in kindergarten for a field trip.  It was nice because we pretty much had the place to ourselves and the weather cooperated with us.   

They had to check out every little animal shelter they found.  If you’ve never been there, it’s basically just a nature preserve.  There is a trail that goes around the perimeter with lots of nature in the middle.  We actually didn’t see that many animals.  I don’t know if that’s normal or not. TRMinator did find a little friend.  He wanted to know if he could bring it home.  I told him, “Heck no!”

They had a good time.  It’s nice to see them doing stuff together that does not include X Box, TV, or computer.  It’s especially nice to see the G_man enjoy himself without technology involved.  (he’s my little techno-nut)  They got to run around and explore and hear the princess yell, ”Brothers!  Brothers!  Wait for me!”  And the really sweet thing is, they usually would.  So cute.

Then we had lunch and went to the grocery store to pick out some pumpkins.  They were on sale for 14¢ a pound.  Woot woot!  I know, it would have been more authentic to go to a pumpkin patch, but I’m looking for a deal and go to where they’re on sale!  That and they had a branch of my bank in the store so I could get some more cash.

***Update!!  Got my new debit card today, now just need to get my new pin and I will have a working debit card again!  That deserves a big Woot!  Woot!  Hallelujah!

I’m going to try and think of someplace new to go next week.  Stay tuned to see what we come up with.