I thought this was sweet- Abby was sick as a dog yesterday and at one point when she was sleeping on the couch Angus went and layed down with her- it is nice to think that maybe he thought he was taking care of her and could sense she was sick- most likely he wanted the warm spot!
It snowed earlier this week- although it wasn't that much- but Lucas still tried to make a snowman! The kids played extremely well together. We got a bunch more snow yesterday and Lucas and Shawn played outside for about an hour yesterday- Abby has the flu, though, so she couldn't- poor girl! I didn't get any pictures of yesterday, though, so I guess this will have to do!
Okay, I need everyone who reads this to please go to www.rocketroadtrip.com right now! That is Shawn's web comic and when you get there you will see a little thing above the actual comic that says "Vote"- click this link and vote for his comic!!! We want it to get a good standing so that we can start selling ad space on it and maybe get it to make us some $!!! Thanks!!!
Yay!!! I am so excited! Thanks to help from my cousin Melissa who works at the Apple store we were able to get a new computer- and not just any computer- an I-mac!!! I am so excited!!! It is so very pretty and we are having fun playing with it and figuring it out- it is different from our old PC and I am not as familiar with how to work around with it, but our old laptop was dying and we needed a new one, so we decided to get one that wouldn't constantly crash on us!!! I know, you can all be jealous now...it's so pretty! Anyhow- I just wanted to say Hi to everyone and let you know that we are still alive! Hope you are all having fun times with the Christmas holidays- man this year has gone by fast!!! Love you all!
Okay- well, the past few weeks have been crazy busy for me! Between working four jobs, taking care of the kids, entertaining friends, and just living life I haven't had much time for the blog. I also haven't really taken any pictures over the past few weeks, so nothing much there to report. Basically I wanted to say Hi to everyone and let you know that I haven't fallen off of the face of the earth. Hope you all have a great Turkey Day! We are still trying to find our balance in our lives, but things are going well and, for once, we still have $ in the checking account when one of Shawn's paychecks comes in again! So, that is all good! Hope you are all doing well! I will try to be better about posting and finding the time in which to do it!
This is the money show of when Lucas broke the pinata- sorry that you can see his butt- we try, really we do, but his pants just don't stay up!!!
Lucas, Abby, and Jessica (our one guest) going through the spoils- there were plenty to be had for only the three of them.
Isn't she pretty?
Here is the cake that Shawn and I spent the morning (well, after I got home from work) decorating- I think it came out quite nicely. We wanted to try our hand at making a traditional cake and then covering it instead of doing a unique shape- I'm pretty proud of it for our amateur attempts.
Abby is so much Shawn's daughter- she doesn't know how to make a normal face for a photo!
She had just blown out the candle- just missed it.
Thankfully Abby had a great time with her one friend and I am very grateful that our kids have built in friends in each other. I held it together really well for the party and even when Jessica's Mom came and visited for a bit. Then I shut the door and cried. I know- I cry easily, but that is the way it is! Abby didn't notice any slight- she was totally fine, I am glad that she is young enough not to take it personally. Thankfully we did have a couple of kids whom we had invited come early and drop off presents because they couldn't come- that helped me feel better. All in all, the kids had fun and that is what matters, right?
He let them crawl into the big truck and see how they ride and get ready for a fire to fight.
He also sat them down and showed them how he dresses up for a fire...
How to crawl around when there is a fire- and where to go...
I thought it was great that he showed them what a firefighter would look like if they came into their house- so that they won't be scared of them.
Then he let them try on the outfit.
Here she is driving the big cool one that the fire fighter pulled out and turned on the lights and the siren for the kids!
They all had a wonderful time and I am glad that I decided to go along as well- I may not have gotten as much work done, but I think that outings like this are both important and fun!
Here are the kids together.
The kids had a blast trick-or-treating; Abby really got it this year and despite the cold rain they were running from house to house having a total blast!
They actually made a new Goofy cartoon- I have always loved his "How to.." segments! Enjoy!
Okay- so as most of you know, Shawn works for a video game company drawing fun art- which he LOVES! It is an awesome job to brag about and he can never complain about his work, but the pay is a little low (Job #1).
So, I got a part time job working for my in-laws at their medical spa (Job #2). This helped make ends meet, but when we moved down to Payson it put me half an hour drive away from work, so now I only work one day a week for 5 hours for them- not much.
We have also been doing laundry for my mother-in-law- she has some major problems with pain in her joints and we are pretty sure that she has Fibromyalsia (or however the heck you spell that), so over a year ago we started doing laundry for her- because the simple act of folding and hanging clothes hurts her, so she pays us $10 a load and we do about 5 loads a week for her- so there is a little more money(Job #3).
Then Shawn's karate teacher (yes he does Karate- isn't that cute! He does it with his younger brother as bonding time and his mom pays for it in exchange for Shawn giving Drew art lessons as well and they have fun being together); anyways- his teacher teaches karate at UVU (formerly UVSC for anyone who didn't know) as well as some other real subject like Math or something- anyways, they wanted to add another karate class to his repertoire and he recommended Shawn for the job of teaching it even though he isn't quite a blue belt yet. So, Shawn teaches one class for two hours a week at $30 an hour (Job #4).
Then I used to work at Curves and I loved it, but I don't have the hours during the week to do it- but there was a girl at my Curves here in Payson who worked only on Saturdays and she was moving- so I took her job. I only get minimum wage, but I get to work out for free (thus saving us $30 a month) and I get a little bit of money for time when I am usually not doing anything anyways, hence (Job #5).
Then, Shawn's Aunt owns her own medical billing company which she does working from home and has gotten busy enough that she needed to hire a part time work from home employee. She offered me the job just this past week. I will need to answer phones Mon-Thurs from 9-4 and double check stuff on her billing- I am barely starting to get trained with this, but this now makes it (Job #6)!
Yeah, now granted three of these jobs just started and I haven't gotten paid for some of them yet, but at the same time- we are working 6 jobs now between the two of us and still, we have no money! No one can say that we aren't trying as hard as we can- but our bills have like tripled in the past few years and it is tough to keep up! I don't mean to sound whiny or complainey, but when we consider that we are living in my parents house paying very little rent and we are in theory saving up to purchase a home of our own and we haven't been able to save anything- that is where it gets scary- and we don't even spend as much on things like DVD's as we used to! Anyways- I just wanted to vent about it- that is life, I guess! Who knows, maybe Shawn or I will write a book and make tons of money- that would be nice!
Tough Love vs. Spanking - Good Argument
Most of the American populace thinks it is improper to spank children, so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have 'one of those moments'.
One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk. Some say its the vibration from the car, others say it is the time away from any distractions such as t.v., video games, the computer, iPod, etc. Either way, my kids usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our car ride together. Eye to eye contact helps alot, too.
I've included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would like to use the technique.
Sincerely,
Your Friend
This works with grandchildren,
nieces, and nephews as well.
So, this is a friend of ours from back in the married student ward days- he actually has several of these videos that he has done- I think they are hilarious! If you enjoy it, go to You Tube and check out his other ones! Enjoy!
Okay, so for those who were worried about my lack of posting the past few weeks, you have probably noticed that I have finally caught up! Not only that, but Shawn and his AWESOME friend at work were able to not only save all of my photos and files off of the computer (which I will now swear to back up my photos every time I load them), but there were able to resurrect the computer without having to erase the whole thing and reload the operating system! I hadn't realized how co-dependent I have become of my computer, but without it I felt very cut off from the world! I also really missed being able to video chat with my parents every week, so tonight I will finally get to again! YAY! However, it has caused my comptuer to be not quite the way it used to be, and since it is 3 1/2 years old, it might be about time to get a new one, if only we had the money . . . *sigh*! Well, just to keep you posted! I put up quite a bit, so scroll on down and enjoy!
Here is Lucas helping Abby ride his bike- I thought it was so cute that he did that! And, as promised here are the videos of what he can do!
Just a quick note to tell you that I have not fallen off the face of the earth- but my computer might have! Last week, I was planning all of these blog posts and stuff to do and after I had done only one of them my computer up and died on me. We are having a friend of Shawn's from work trying to resurrect it, but while I am waiting for that I don't have my access at home! Keep checking, though, I have a lot to catch up on, so I will be doing a lot when I have good computer access again! Love you all!
You can see here how much I had to cut off- what the difference is . . .
So, for Abby's birthday we took her to Build a bear where the built her own kitty! I wish I had remembered to bring my camera with me to see her face when they were stuffing the kitty and kissing the little heart they put inside of it and stuff! I am too forgetful- lately I feel like I can't remember anything! Well, we think she had a pretty good day! She got a big girl bike with training wheels and, of course, the kitty. I was especially shocked at the price- I thought for sure it would be like $40, but it was only $28 after the clothes and everything! Not too bad! Abby came up with the incredibly creative name of "Kitty Friend" Believe me, we tried to get her to come up with something else, but she was dead set on this one...
Lucas as BumbleBee- last year he was Optimus Prime, but this Bumble Bee is the one from the cartoon series...
You can see that Abby's pretty curls started to come out toward the end of the night- but she didn't care, they were having too much fun! I was especially proud of Lucas- he was really great at saying "thank you" and then we went to this one door where these other kids were trick-or-treating and we heard them say "Happy Halloween" and I told Lucas he should do that from now on and he totally did! "Thank you, have a Happy Halloween!" He is such a good boy!
We spent Halloween up in American Fork with my in-laws which is always fun for us! We had a good time, despite the rain- it is a good thing it was warm earlier that day!
So, on Thursday we went with Abby's pre-school to a pumpkin patch in Santaquin- I didn't even know the place was there, but I really liked it, it is called the big "Red Barn" and it is where Mountainland apples are grown and they also produce cherries and pears and several other kinds of fruit. They had an old tractor out for kids to take pictures on, so here they are- Lucas really liked the tractor!
So, today Shawn and I were doing the dishes when suddenly Shawn yelled and ran into the living room where he proceeded to beat Abby with the towel he was fortuitously holding. Why was he doing this? Because she had decided that she wanted to see what her pretty hair would look like when it was combined with that pretty flame of the candle that I had lit!!! Fortunately she wasn't hurt in any way- it is tough to see from the top picture you can kind of see what her hair looked like when the ordeal was over (I didn't stop to take a photo of her hair in fire, sorry). The saddest part is that we had to cut off several inches of her beautiful hair and now she has lost her curl that she had at the ends!!!