Happy Halloween!

Here's our Pirate Clan with our little parrot!

Trick or treating was fun but Caden's tummy still not feeling well and Reesey was hungry and eating candy bars through the wrapper so we three came home and passed out candy (which Caden loved) and Daddy took the other two pirates out and about for a while.

Hope your Halloween was fun too!

Happy Fall, Y'all

Can you believe it . . . 60 something degree weather, no jackets, short sleeves, bare foot babies and it's almost the last day of October? I love it. Maybe the kids' costumes will be seen instead of being covered up with coats? I thought we'd better take advantage of this great weather and do some leaf photos. I'm not so good at raking big piles like Daddy but they still had fun . . . except for Caden . . . his tummy hurts . . . I'm hoping he feels better tomorrow for his school party and trick or treating.

They had fun and so did I! I love the changing leaves, the colors, the way they smell, the variety. It's such a magical time of year!

For once in our life we didn't scramble to carve pumpkins the night before Halloween. I'm loving my Halloween Advent Tree thing because it makes us "plan a bit. That was the "treat" in the box yesterday: carve jack-o-lanterns to keep the ghosties and ghoulies away. We carved 5 pumpkins in about an hour and half. Aaron is good at this activity and loves doing it. He still has to make his jack-o-lantern but he does one of those fancy ones out of the pattern books so his is more detailed. He'll make his this week sometime (probably Thursday night at 10pm).

Reese was napping during the pumpkin carving guess we should have let her help -- she loved sticking her hand in the pumpkin eyes and didn't mind the slimy feel. The other three however wanted nothing to do with gutting their pumpkins.

Apparently the best thing about jack-o-lanterns is removing and replacing the top a thousand times. I guess it's the simple things that are the best!

So you think you can . . .

Here's my layout for The Story Matters challenge blog. The challenge was "so you think you can ________?". I love these photos of Ethan eating a peanut butter and Jelly sandwich. I took these the first day I got my new camera.

Journaling says: "mmm . . . delicious" you love food PB&J is a favorite but you have to dissect it before you eat it - messy, messy, messy. You'll never be awarded for table manners - but you are a good eater! Ethan 8/08

Boo at the Zoo

Our favorite zoo had their annual Halloween event this weekend called "Boo at the Zoo". I've wanted to take the kids for a couple years now but it never worked out but this year we finally made it. The weather was "iffy" so we didn't tell the kids ahead of time about going until Saturday morning. They were excited that we were going to the zoo since it had been almost 2 months since we've been there and that they got to wear their Halloween costumes. I think I got some great shots of all 4 of them in their Pirate and Parrot costumes. I bought the boys' pirate costumes for $2 a piece at Toys R Us last year after Halloween. Addison's outfit is thrift store stuff with a skirt I made and I made Reese's Parrot costume which I thought she would hate but she really didn't mind it at all.

It's a lot of work to get them all dressed and ready since there's so much accessorizing. But we made it and thanks to Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Keely we have a family membership to the zoo so we didn't' have to stand in the long, long line to get in.

It was kind of cold but we ended up being there almost 2 hours and the sun did come out for a while and it wasn't as bad. Lots of businesses were there giving out treats to the kids and we looked at the animals too. We were able to skip the train, carousel, and bounce house as there were long lines for all those things and we've been there so much the kids didn't really care.

Attack of the Ape -- when we first walked in the zoo, all three of the kids started running toward the big ape statue and started to attack it with their swords. It was bizarre and hilarious!

The Story Matters challenge is due tonight in about 4 hours so I guess I should get started!

Pink Eyes, Yucky Ears, and A Project

More sickness here just not me. I tried to ignore Reese's yucky eyes but her lids turned pink then Addison came home from school on Tuesday with a really pink eye. Of course ALL the eye medication I had was expired (by like 2 years) and then Addison has this horrendous cough so I figured we'd better get to the doctor. Good thing, 3 infected eyes, each had an infection ear too! So antibiotics all around, some eye drops, and cough medicine. Addison has missed 2 days of school and she is ready to go back, hopefully her eye looks better tomorrow. Caden's teacher commented to me today how different he is at school without Addison there. She said he is much more talkative and flitting about the room. I said that's weird and asked if they even interact at school during the day and she said no, not really. She said Addison doesn't boss him around or anything. Just whole different boy without her there. I wish there were three classrooms so they could each be separated. Aaron said he wants all three of them together all through school. Give me a break, who wants to go to be in the same class with their siblings every year. They get enough of each other at home. I thought it would have been nice to have them all together this past year more for convenience sake for me but it's working out fine with 2 in one class and one in the other.

Today Addison and I made this:

Addison was disappointed she missed another day of school so I told her we could do a "project". A while back I was inspired here to make a Halloween advent style calendar. I was going to decorate 31 paper mache boxes and put magnets on the back and put them on my fridge. Little paper mache boxes used to cost 3 for $1 back in 1990-something. Now they are $1 a piece. My sister was even going to try to get me a deal through her scrapbook store but it was still going to be over $20 for 31 boxes plus I would still have to decorate them all AND buy/think of think of things to go in the boxes for 3 kids! Anyway I found some of those boxes at Walmart for 69 cents so I got 8 of them. Eight is plenty for the Halloween countdown. Addison helped me paint them then she picked the embellishments for the top. I decided magnets on the fridge wouldn't work for me because they would fall and I have bad luck with gluing magnets on projects. I saw a little Halloween tree in a magazine and decided to punch holes with my crop-a-dile so they could hang with ribbon. I went outside in our "to burn" pile and found a couple branches, stuck them in floral foam in a metal bucket. It's pretty big but the kids will be excited to see it on the table in the morning. I have bought some small gifts for them for some of the days but I am also going to include things like decorate cookies, carve pumpkins, make a Halloween craft etc. I think it will be fun! and I'm so glad I didn't have to hang 31 boxes on my little branch.

Peace and Harmony at last!

I saw this on another blog and thought it was too funny!

I can't see the top!

That's how I feel -- like everything I need to do is in one huge pile and I can't see the top of it . . . but we really all know everything I need to do is not in one huge pile -- that would be to easy. It's actually scattered about here, there, and everywhere, just to add to the disarray of my overwhelming life! I do it to myself. We don't need to have a huge birthday party with tons of extra decorations. Our whole family doesn't have to dress up in a theme and I make 4 costumes. Especially at this time of year when there's Halloween, parent teacher conferences, yearly doctor visits, Thanksgiving, Christmas around the corner, and all the other stuff I can't even remember . . . but I do like the big birthday parties we have. The kids remember them. They thought they were going to be monkeys again this year! I have compromised and Reese is having a super small teeny weeny party with not many guests. I am going to make her some little decorations but sweet and simple is the theme. Especially when her birthday is just 3 weeks after the older kids and on Thanksgiving. I know some people will baulk at the whole idea that I throw BIG parties for the older kids but it's different and there's three of them. I don't care what people think anyway.

Being sick last week didn't help the cause of me getting anything done either. I felt better Thursday and Friday. My sister, Keely, and her family came on Friday to spend the night. By the time they left Saturday afternoon I was feeling really bad again. I guess the best thing is so far I am the only one who really got sick and no one else. I'm better now.

I was wasting time complaining yesterday to my sister about how much stuff is going on in the next 2 weeks and she said look back to last year's post at this time. I did and it's always like this and like she said at least I'm not pregnant too on top of everything else.

I spent the morning finally putting all the older kids winter clothes in the closet and dresser and packing up the summer stuff since it finally seems that cooler weather is here to stay. I really hate those jobs but we have been digging out of tubs for a few weeks now for long sleeved shirts and longer pants.

Now I'm off to glitter more bones and pick up every room of this house since my favorite housekeeper is coming tomorrow . . .

and I'm going to conquer that pile!

It's official

Here's how our front porch looks when you stand at the end of our sidewalk not too bad except for the ripped screen {kids!}.


I even bought this new doormat a few weeks ago because our other one was at least 2 years old and spent a good part of the summer upside down in the mud {roofers! IE: my husband!}.


Then as you walk up the front walk, here's what begins to welcome you, see the stuff peeking our from the sides of the porch. It's screaming


the title of POOR WHITE TRASH! Keepin' it real, people -- you all are thinking it anyway!

That changing table has been there since August from the yard sale, we don't change the kids out there -- it's going to the resale shop, I'm actually waiting for it to walk there on it's own, I guess.


My husband thinks our front porch is a storage space! We have 2 garages in the back -- one for our neighbor???? and one that Aaron stuffs full by randomly putting stuff in the front and middle of the floor. Then he will complain on a daily basis about how he can't walk in his own garage or find anything . . . I seldom venture in there because there's lots of places for possums and raccoons to hide. But when I do I notice the things I have told him belong in the garage are randomly set down here, there, and everywhere. Organization is not his strong suit; I guess I'm no professional in that area either as told by the photos.

In wintertime he sometimes likes to store these strollers and that wagon in our living room by the front door.

If you've been in our living room there is no room by our front door or anywhere else in our house so then if I complain enough he will take the stroller and stand at the top of the stairs and toss it in the basement. So that our basement can be an unorganized mess that he will complain about daily and if I need a stroller I will have to trip around down there and carry it up.

Things like this drive me crazy but I don't have extra time to deal with this stuff by myself (I do have time to photograph it and blog about it though) nor do I know where to put them, other than at a bigger house! It eats away at me every time I go in and out the door . . . sigh.



Look at the pumpkins . . . they are going to be spread about our yard! We have 13 pumpkins right now. Yep I said 13 and Ethan still has one at school! We got 4 of them on the school pumpkin patch trip. This past weekend we picked up 5 more at Tanner's Orchard.

Then my dad, who has something against pumpkin patches, thinks he needs to grow pumpkins for us including that humgo one that he said weighs 75 pounds but can only sit up leaning against something very study.

I think he doesn't like that we spend money on the pumpkins but he doesn't get that it's the memorable experience of getting the pumpkins not just having someone bring them to you or buying them at a store. If we were to grow our own, then that would be a fun experience too. I'm not ungrateful but this family of 6 doesn't need 13 pumpkins sitting on their front porch. Last year somebody smashed one of ours so having 13 is just screaming to all the late night hoodlums: "COME TO THE MURRAY HOUSE!" although I don't know if some teenagers could smash that big one without power tools.

So Aaron took tomorrow off. One of his projects: clean the garage. Which means I can probably get some of that stuff off the porch. After all Aaron got a new 5' skeleton to hang on the porch for Halloween which I was informed will be hung with a noose --- gotta keep the POOR WHITE TRASH theme going!

Back amongst the living

Maybe . . . I've been sick for the past 2-1/2 days. Not just a little bit sick but the kind that puts you in bed with a temperature of 103 and you don't care what happens to anyone because you are on your death bed. The kids had Monday off so there was no choice but for Aaron to stay home -- I have never asked him to stay home before when I was sick but I've never been that sick since we've had kids. I went to the local clinic on Monday thinking I had strep throat because I get it easily and I get really sick with it. Well . . .I didn't have strep . . . the practitioner thought I had mastitis (clogged milk duct) which I knew I didn't have because I had that before. I got antibiotics which never did anything because evidently I had the flu.

My children seemed so out of control on Monday while Aaron was watching them all I could hear was them running and jumping and screaming and then him yelling. He still hasn't learned the art of keeping it low key so the kids will also be less high strung. I'm not exactly sure what was going on all day because at one point Addison came upstairs to tell me that the baby was in the cat water. So I said "where's Daddy?" and when she said he's asleep I had to make myself go downstairs to make sure all 4 children were still alive. He was laying on the couch but said he wasn't sleeping. That night Caden crawled into bed with us at like 11pm which is not what I needed at all, Aaron said I guess we watched too many Halloween shows today so that tells you what they did all day.

Aaron went to work on Tuesday and I was barely coherent enough to get them to school yesterday. We didn't get up soon enough and I had to dig out clothes and I don't really think they ate breakfast. Addison and Caden were crying because they wanted to take their lunch but I had no energy to make it. I have to pick Ethan up at the elementary school on Tuesdays from library time. Of course, since I used to teach there I know everyone and everyone talks to me which normally I enjoy but not yesterday, I hadn't brushed my teeth or combed my hair, I could barely walk in there to pick up Ethan. Then his teacher was telling me about some problem he had in the morning but when I got home I couldn't remember what she had said so I had to talk to her this morning about it again. As soon as Aaron walked in the door yesterday I went back upstairs.

I just kept praying that no one else would get sick before I got better especially Aaron. I'm not 100% yet but feeling much better so maybe now we can get some food in this house I really don't know what Aaron has been feeding them but our fridge and cupboards are bare. There's no milk and only a few pieces of bread so we need to restock today. Even though things were a bit chaotic Aaron kept it together but let's hope he never has to do this on a permanent basis -- it would for sure put him in an early grave. At one point on Monday, he came upstairs and said "If this is what you have to deal with all day, I'd divorce me and leave all the kids here, this is crazy!"

Here's to health and ya'll go get your flu shots!

It''s Friday

and no favorite thing Friday since I'm working on a cold and my brain isn't fully functioning, (without cold medicine -- still nursing) so all I can say is being sick is anything but a favorite thing.

The pumpkin patch was fun . . . short and sweet . . . ride the bus . . . ride the tram to the patch . . . pick out a pumpkin . . . ride the tram to the snack building and eat cookies and juice . . . ride the tram to the bus . . . back to school! The kids had a good time and it was a nice day.

Today since I'm not feeling 100% all I've done is sorted through some of my scrapbook stuff . . . pulling out stuff I want to sell at Scrapaganza's yard sale at the end of the month. Last time I sold stuff at the yard sale, I had a $90 store credit . . . this time I won't have as much but I like cleaning out a little and earning some moola for future purchases.

Picked up Ethan from school and the three of us headed to Monmouth to get license plate sticker for Aaron's truck that expired over a week ago and I totally forgot. Then we signed up for our family membership to the YMCA. Now's the time, they waived the initial fee of $70 during their membership drive (goes until next week) so we saved some money. We just have to work out a plan/schedule and actually go. It's going to be hard at first but definitely needed. So far on my goal to run a 5K race I have:

1. bought running shoes that haven't been out the box since I brought them home in August

2. paid for a YMCA membership

3. procrastinated for 3 months which is probably making you all say "I knew it" My BIL, Jeremy asked if this race/running thing would be like all the things in my and my sister, Keely's life. Cramming and staying up most the night before getting ready . . . probably but I don't think running a race works like that.

I'm buying a sports bra (my newest excuse as to why I can't work out) this weekend and getting started!

Tonight we are taking it easy: Addison, Ethan, Reese and I are staying home. Caden gets to go to a buttbars game (that's football in Cadenspeak) with Daddy. Addison is not at all happy about the situation but she's gotten to do stuff with me a couple a times without the whole crew and Ethan gets to do stuff with me in the afternoons sometimes and Reese . . . well, she gets me all the time. I had to promise some "fun projects" for Addison to be somewhat okay with this situation so I guess I'd better start doing some thinking as to what our "projects" will be . . . oh my!