Halloween 2007

The kids had a great time tonight. Rebecca went as Tracy Turnblad from Hairspray, Sarah was Tracy's friend, Penny. Nate was a prisoner and Jake was a policeman. Rebecca knew she wanted to be Tracy for a few months but Sarah had no idea what she wanted to be. I was at Goodwill yesterday buying a leather backpack for Rebecca's costume when I found the dress Sarah wore. I thought it was perfect for Penny and Sarah was really excited when I brought it home. Jake's hat was my dad's police hat so I told him he had to be very careful with it. He did great and was proud to be wearing it. He told all his friends at school that he was wearing a "real" police hat.

We started the night with all the Krummenachers at Steve and Glenna's house. Glenna had really cute bread bowls that looked like pumpkins. She made chili and soup to go in them. I love this tradition of the Krummenachers because it makes it so I don't have to make dinner while I'm busy getting all the kids ready for the night. It's also fun to be able to see everyone in their costumes before the trick or treating begins.

Grandpa Krummenacher drove all the cousins around in his train and later that night drove some of the neighborhood kids around too. What a fun Grandpa my children have!

Towards the end of the night Rebecca had some fun with her can of hairspray she was carrying around. She is so much fun to be around and makes life very enjoyable! She was singing "Good Morning Baltimore" while twirling around and spraying her hair. If you click on the picture to make it bigger you can see the joy in her face. It's pretty cute. I'm wondering though if maybe she had a little too much hairspray!

We went home and found some donuts and juice sitting on the bench on our front porch. They were from my visiting teacher. She never forgets a holiday including pioneer day! We thought Jake eating a donut in his police costume would make a perfect picture to end the night.

Chick Magnet

For Halloween Nate and Jake are being a policeman and a prisoner but for school Nate wanted to be something that people would laugh at so we threw this together tonight. Hopefully it has the effect he's wanting! I'm not sure that the kids his age are going to get it. We'll see! He loves it and is really excited for the school parade tomorrow so I guess that's all that matters.

Kate's Sweater

Jen was at my house yesterday picking up her girls. As we were talking she put on Kate's sweater. I had to get a picture. Sorry Jen, it was just too funny not to put on the blog.

Brent had his birthday on Monday. Monday is usually his hardest day at Krazy Sub because he has all his slicing to do on top of a lot of other things that only get done on Monday. Sunday night I told Brent I had a Primary meeting but instead I picked up Mary and we went to Krazy Sub and sliced everything he needed for the next day. On Monday I worked for Dawn so that he wouldn't have to work with her on his birthday. I know that sounds mean but she is really hard to work with!

After work we stopped by Brent's parents house on our way to Carrabas Restaurant. He opened his present and it was of all things a fondue set. Brent and Glenna died laughing when he opened it because it was an inside joke from when he was little. Apparently the story goes like this: The night before Brent turned 8, he was dying to know what he was going to get for his birthday and apparently kept bugging his parents about it. Glenna had a pile of things she was putting together to take to D.I. and among the pile was a fondue set. Tired of being bugged by Brent, she finally told him that she hadn't had time to buy him a present and she was planning on giving him the fondue set. Brent said he went to bed very very upset thinking his parents were crazy to think this would be okay with him. Of course when he woke up he had better presents. Glenna was asking Brent this year what he wanted for his birthday and he jokingly told her he really wanted a fondue set. Glenna was shopping at Mervins a few days before his birthday and found a fondue set on clearance so she couldn't pass it up. I've probably messed this story up a little so if you want to add anything to it Glenna, feel free to comment!

I made Brent's favorite german chocolate cake for dessert but by the time we got back from dinner, all of us were too full to eat it. Is this not the saddest sight you have ever seen? One piece of cake was eaten that night and that piece was only eaten because Brent felt bad that I went to all that trouble to make the cake from scratch and no one wanted it. It's definitely not as pretty as Lisa's cake on her blog but it tastes really good. I haven't mastered the looks part of german chocolate cake yet. Maybe after another 17 years I'll have that down.

Hillbilly Chili Cook-Off

Last Saturday our ward had it's annual chili cookoff. This year they decided to invite the kids and make it a hillbilly theme. Glenna stuck this picture on her blog so thank you Glenna for the picture! I forgot my camera again. I made chili and feel like the only reason I didn't win is because my mother-in-law (Glenna) who was a judge didn't want people mad at her for choosing a family member. Mine definitely was the best. (I hope people know me enough to know I'm kidding). Brent thinks for sure he would've won had he had time to make it this year. He didn't think I cared enough. (By the way, I didn't care...It's a stinkin' ward chili cookoff, who cares if they win?!) It was a lot of fun anyway. I tried cutting Nate's hair into a mullet but had to use a number 1 on the clippers for it to look good. Nate was so upset at how short it was that he made me cut it all so that he wouldn't look so bad. I usually use a number 2 at the shortest part. He really wanted me to cut it to begin with. I guess I should've warned him how short we would actually have to go for it to look like a mullet before I cut it. Lesson learned.

Just got back from the stake young women leadership meeting. Nope, I am not in young women's but I was asked to put a small group together for the musical number. This is the problem with having your stake young women's president as your back door neighbor! She asked that I put some beehives together to sing He Sent His Son. I asked her if she had anyone who could play the piano for this and she couldn't think of one person who would be at the meeting that could play and told me she was sure I would do a great job. Funny! Brent said I won the award for practicing the piano the most in our family this week. I hate playing the piano in public because no matter how well I know the song, I get nervous and mess up in front of people. Luckily I did okay tonight and made only a few mistakes that I think only I knew about. I asked Sarah and Rebecca to sing along with 4 other girls from the ward. I found a nice arrangement for the song and the girls did great!

I then dropped all the girls off and ran to Nate's pack meeting. They carved pumpkins and Nate won the prize for "Coolest Pumpkin". He looked very proud of himself. Every boy was awarded some kind of prize and they called out Nate's last. As we were leaving Nate told me that of course they saved the best for last. I'm glad he has such a good self esteem!

The weather here has been beautiful in the evenings lately so we have been doing a lot of bike riding together. Last night Rebecca wanted to ride 5 miles but it was too late to go very far so Rebecca, Nate, Jake and I rode around our little circle in front of our house 25 times. 5 times around according to the mileage thingy on the car equals one mile. I'm not used to riding bikes very much so I am paying for it today everytime I sit down. The family took a ride a few days ago with Lady. It made a pretty funny picture!

Going Private

I have decided to go private because I don't feel comfortable letting just anyone see my family blog. If you didn't get an invitation and want to still be able to see my blog, please send me your e-mail so that I can update it. So far I have entered all the family members that I have e-mails for and a few friends that I know read the blog once and a while. If anyone else wants to go private it is pretty easy to change the setting. When I entered the e-mails, to make it easy I just copied and pasted from my e-mail list then erased the names and added commas in between each e-mail address. I have avoided going public because I thought it would be a hassle to enter everyone's e-mails but it really wasn't. I will officially go private on Sunday. Sorry for any inconvenience but I really did just start this blog so that I could write down our personal family experiences. Seems weird to me that strangers can look at that.

Top Things Kristen And I Know That We Know That We Know About Nashville

1. If you have a terrific idea to get a hotel where you can play Canasta next to the pool while the kids swim, make sure the hotel is not in a drug infested area and that there is actually a pool.

2. If you see a sign on the hotel door that says: "Management is not responsible for theft", and the only way to get into the office is if they unlock the door for you, Don't even check in, get back in your car and drive FAR away.

3. If there are more men walking around your hotel without shirts than with shirts, Don't even check in, get back in your car and drive FAR away.

4. If a Hispanic man comes and knocks on your door and continues to knock even after you have told him several times that he has the wrong room, it's time to change hotels.

5. When you tell the hotel clerk about the Hispanic man knocking on your door and about all the people on drugs walking around the hotel and her only response is, "That's what you should expect when you book a hotel on this street."- you know it's time to change hotels.

6. NEVER, EVER EVER book a 2 star hotel for $30.00 next to an airport.

7. Don't get off the freeway to get directions at 11:00pm in a place where there is nothing but adult bookstores and homeless people walking around.

8. Don't drive the wrong way on a one way street.

9. You know things are bad when you are praying that a cop will pull you over so that you can ask for directions.

10. When you drive past the same building 20 times- and finally decide to ask for directions, pull over to the nearest McDonald's, not the nearest Wild Horse Cabaret.

11. When you finally get to your safe Best Western in a safe area at 12:00am, don't do pyramids on the bed in your hotel room with your nephew and nieces. Accidents could happen resulting in your five year old niece passing out and not remembering anything that happened.

12. And finally, if when you do get to the 3 star hotel at midnight and you have all the kids settled, you open the drawer in the nightstand next to you and find a condom, maybe you need to book the four star hotel next time!

This all happened the night before I left. Kristen and I thought it would be a better idea to spend the night in Nashville so that she wouldn't have to drive 7 hours in one day. As you can see by the list, it was a little scary that night. I booked a 2 star hotel on priceline (stupid, I know!) and it was very very scary. We went out to dinner and shopping that night and on our way back to the hotel I had a horrible feeling. I told Kris that I didn't know if it was the Holy Ghost trying to tell me not to go back or just me and my nerves because I get nervous about everything. A few minutes later she said that she had the same bad feelings and that she doesn't get nervous. This is what began the whole adventure. Despite that night I had a great time in Tennessee. I love being with my sister. She is the best example and I always come home from her house wanting to be a better mom and a better person. She is one of the few people in my life that I feel like I can be my weird self with and there is no judgement. We just have fun together. What does anyone do without sisters? Thank you so much for your hospitality Kristen and Jeff, and a huge thank you to Jen for the ticket to get me there! You guys are the best. I love my family!!!

This is at BB King's on Beale Street. They had a live band playing and really good ribs and BBQ chicken. Kristen and I had to get the picture of this couple behind me. The guy couldn't keep his hands off the lady all night. You should've seen them dancing! You can see I couldn't stop laughing. Neither could everyone else around us. It was quite a scene.

We went to the Memphis zoo with the kids. The polar bear exhibit was our favorite. Brooke had a cup she was holding and the polar bear kept swimming really fast then hitting the glass to try to get the cup. The lady next to Brooke is someone who worked there and was telling the kids that the polar bear thought Brooke had fish in her cup.

This was at the Rainforest Cafe in Nashville.We took the kids there right before they took me to the airport. Not the greatest food (the worst lettuce wraps I've ever had) but the dessert was really really good and big enough for us all to share.

Doesn't it look like Kristen lives in

Mayberry? This is a few miles down the street from her house. I fell in love with her town. If I knew a Krazy Sub would do well there I'd be very tempted to move.

This is INSIDE the Opryland Hotel. The hotel is huge and gorgeous inside. They have waterfalls, boat rides, and tons of cute little shops and restaurants all over.

Nashville

Well, I'm here in Tennessee and having a great time with Kristen and her family! Kristen, being the awesome sister she is drove 3 1/2 hours to Nashville from her home to get me. We checked in to our hotel (Radison-Opryland)then went out to eat. After our stomachs were full we walked over to the Opryland hotel. It was an amazing hotel with tons of shops to look through. It has waterfalls and beatiful plants everywhere. I'm so mad I forgot my camera that night because it is hard to explain how beautiful and huge that hotel was. We then walked over to the mall and saw Sydnie White. Cute and very cheesy movie: just perfect for a girl's night out!

The girls had thier first choir concert that same night and I was very dissapointed that I had to miss it. (Tickets were bought in July way before I knew the school schedule.) Brent called me as we were leaving the movie and just kept the phone up so I could hear Rebecca's group sing. I put it on speaker phone and Kristen and I jammed to the choir music. What I heard minus all the static and background noise was very good! I am always very amazed by the Poston junior high choirs. Mr. Carpenter (their director) does an amazing job with those kids. To me they sound as good as a lot of high school choirs. He has them take on very difficult songs and they always perform them amazingly well for their age. I didn't get to hear Sarah's group because Brent had to leave to go teach his spinning class but I heard they did great too.

After the movie we wanted something sweet to eat but nothing was open so we ended up walking to McDonalds. Kristen who looks fabulous right now because she just lost 38 pounds and is in a size 6 got a yogurt parfait and I who looks horrible right now because I have gained her 38 pounds got a hot fudge sundae. You would think I would try harder after seeing how amazing she looks. Instead I am doing the same thing I always do and am going to start my diet AFTER the trip.

Yesterday we shopped all day long then drove the 3 1/2 hours back to Memphis. It's nice to finally see her beautiful house that she has been spending so much time fixing up. I'll try to get some pictures taken now that I'm here and post them.

My little phobia

Cryophobia- Fear of extreme cold, ice or frost.Yes! There is a name for it, I am not the only one right? Otherwise there wouldn't be a name for it! I have always hated popsicles(unless they are melted slightly). I will not touch ice if my hands are even remotely damp (it sticks!). I don't like to eat ice cream with a metal spoon (unless slightly melted) (it sticks!). And even as I am writing this post I have goosebumps all over my arms because I don't even like to think about it. My kids LOVE to tease me and will get ice to stick to their hands or stick their tongues to a popsicle just to get me upset. Not very nice is it?! I couldn't sleep tonight and was surfing the net when I came upon a list of phobias. I was very excited to find that my phobia is actually listed so thought I would share. See, I'm not crazy! (Okay, maybe a little.)

Some funny phobias I found:
Alliumphobia- Fear of garlic.
Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth
Autodysomophobia- Fear of one that has a vile odor
Consecotaleophobia- Fear of chopsticks
Genuphobia- Fear of knees
Germanophobia- Fear of Germany or German culture.
Graphophobia- Fear of writing or handwriting
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia- Fear of the number 666 (I just like the name!)
Lachanophobia- Fear of vegetables.
Octophobia - Fear of the figure 8.
Papaphobia- Fear of the Pope
Peladophobia- Fear of bald people.
Pteronophobia- Fear of being tickled by feathers
Syngenesophobia- Fear of relatives.
Walloonphobia- Fear of the Walloons. (What the heck is a Walloon?)
Zemmiphobia- Fear of the great mole rat.