Big Brain

I told my husband tonight that I had a really big brain. This is why: A couple of days ago our electricity went out for a couple of hours and since then our AC hasn't been working. I could hear the unit outside turning on but the inside unit wouldn't make a sound. Frustrated, I told Geoff that I was sure that it had something to do with the electricity going out. He told me to call the AC guy that we paid $1600 dollars! to last summer to put in a new outside unit because it looked like we were going to have to replace the inside unit now! I felt physically sick. So I strapped on my tool belt... opened the door to the inside unit... unplugged it... plugged it back in... Viola! It works. Thus, I have a big brain. Print Page

Church Antics

A couple of weeks ago at church Asher was REALLY bored! I reached over and told Geoff that I wish we had a camera. He pulled out his phone (I didn't even think of that) and snapped this. Don't tell the bishop! He doesn't usually wear cowboy boots but this day we had convinced him that they would look really cute!

Another Piece of Evidence!

So this is a picture of Aspen with my friend Q. I know many of you think that Andyn looks like her brother Asher but there is no denying the resemblance to Aspen in this picture!! Sorry, the picture is a little grainy but it's old school.

Celebrating 10 Years

10 years!! It's really hard to believe... that I haven't killed Geoff yet. Every time someone asks us how long that we've been married Geoff will tell them and then say, "It feels like 5 minutes... (pause so they can say-awh) under water! Gets 'em every time. Real comedian that one! All kidding aside, 10 years is a long time to be married and because we didn't have the chance to celebrate in July (our actual anniversary) I planned a secret getaway for us - with the help of several of my friends! Lolly and PJ offered to watch the kiddos but because they have two little foster kids now I thought it might be too much to have all four of mine. So, the two older girls each got to spend the night with a friend and Lolly and PJ stayed at our house to watch Asher and Andyn. I spent a little over a week researching things to do in Dallas and a couple of surrounding areas and decided on a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater for Friday night. I reserved a hotel room and had plans the next day to go to the temple, a fun place to eat lunch and hit IKEA in Frisco on the way back home. I picked Geoff up at work on Friday afternoon. He had no idea what we were doing. I even packed a bag for him and brought it with me. I told him I had a baby-sitter and we were going on a date. We started driving and once we had been driving about an hour he said "I thought we were just going to catch a movie?" I said "We are... kind of." The dinner theater was at this fabulous resort in Grapevine, TX and we had a great time!!! Before we went into the restaurant there was a gentleman sitting on a bench and he was spray painted gold. If you put money in his pocket he would nod his head and say thank you other than that he didn't budge. The dinner theater was a lot of fun but the food was below par. This was a little disappointing since I paid a lot of money for the tickets! The show was great and the couple we sat with were really sweet and fun! I have posted some pics of the show. One of the characters (snake eyes something) was really a hoot. When I asked him to take a picture of us he turned the camera around and took a picture of himself. He was really funny. As we were leaving Geoff asked me if I wanted him to drive home because it was late and we had a long drive home. I said to him, "Well, that's the other part of my surprise. We're not going home!" It was so fun to see the glee in his eyes! So... fast forward... Saturday we went to the temple only to realize that I had forgotten my temple recommend. We hung out on temple grounds for a while and then went to the bookstore. I told him that there was this really fun looking restaurant that I wanted to take him to where they would actually cut off your tie if you wore one in so we looked it up and drove to it only to be a little frightened as we approached. Across the street was a store that was called Condom Sense (draw your own conclusions). Down the street was a Cabaret. And two of the buildings next to the restaurant looked condemned! It was suppose to just be this fun little steak house!! We left. We just headed to Frisco and decided we would try to find something to eat there. We each had a hot dog from IKEA - real fancy! On our way out to McKinney we stopped at a movie theater and watched The Bourne Ultimatum. Then drove on to McKinney and ate at The Genghis Grill. Super yummy Mongolian style grill. Then we of course had to top it off with some frozen custard from Culver's! We stopped in Sherman because I cannot go there without stopping in at Target and that is when the life force seemed to sucked out of Geoff. What is it with men and shopping? I swear we weren't in there for a whole 3 minutes and before he started to slouch and talk about how tired he was and how bad his feet hurt!! Wimp! Anyway, we had a great time and are eternally grateful to our friends for watching our kids so that we could actually spend some time together. It's really hard when you don't live very close to family. Friends are all you have. Print Page

Pachelbel's bedtime

Shelley sent me this and I really thought he was right on target!! He forgot the part about "screaming for chocolate milk" though! I have to be honest, I kind of got a tear there at the end!

My Shopping List...

These two items were on my shopping list Friday: Ovaltine & Frank's Hot Sauce . Ovaltine because my kids really like chocolate milk and I feel like Ovaltine is better for them than other powder milk flavoring and we have successfully conditioned Asher to wake up every single morning asking for this delicious treat (and usually before 6:30 am)! Frank's Hot Sauce because I decided to make my own hot wings for a family reunion we attended yesterday. Be sure and check out my recipe blog to see the recipe for these scrumptious wings!! I thought they turned out very tasty. Also, I will be putting the recipes for Chocolate Gravy and Hot Fudge Sauce on my recipe blog as well. We made both of these items today. Aunt Flo is visiting and I ALWAYS need chocolate when she comes! Print Page

Lolly Pops are Just Plain Fun!

***Warning - TALK OF POOP AHEAD!*** I picked these lolly pops up at Target the other day and used them to bribe my kids. (Because I have excellent parenting skills!) I told the girls that they could have theirs if they would do their chores for a whole week without complaining! (Since vacation we have ALL been in a real rut!) And I told Asher that if he would poop in the potty everyday for a whole week he could have his, too. They all complied! I was so happy! Speaking of pooping on the potty - It's been almost 3 months since we started potty training Asher. I thought he was never going to get it. But, I'm happy to report that he has officially gone over 2 weeks without one single poop accident. This is quite a feat because for 2 1/2 months he pooped his pants every time he had to go and not even ONCE did he go in the toilet! What did the trick you might ask? One can never really know if it was a stroke of genius on my part or if he just decided that he was ready to stop having accidents. But... I bought him a GameBoy Advance at a garage sale for $5 for his birthday (Aug 11) and then told him that he could ONLY play it while he was on the potty trying to go poop! That did it. He pooped every time that he went and he went often so he could play the GameBoy. Then after a week he got his lovely lolly pop. Now I just need to gradually get him un-addicted to the GameBoy. I'd rather do that than to clean messy pants ever again!!

All Tuckered Out!

I'd like to say that he fell asleep reading all those books behind him. But... that just wouldn't be true. I've always loved it when my kids have fallen asleep in a highchair or somewhere totally crazy. So, I couldn't help snapping a couple of pics this time! Here's another pic from when he was a baby.

Asher's Word of the Day

Lasterday. Yep that's it. Can you guess what it means? Hint: It has absolutely nothing to do with this picture. I just thought it was super cute and needed a post to put it in. :) Print Page

My Handyman Husband

So, Geoff doesn't really enjoy doing home improvement projects but I make him do them any way. This is what happened after I begged him to finally work on our bathroom. I think the lights are supposed to be pointing down. The old light fixture was a big bowling ball looking thing with chains coming out of each side with each end having its own bowling ball looking fixture. They were draped on metal hooks in the corners on each side of the center... I know this doesn't make sense and I wish that I had taken a before picture but that is pretty much an exact description! Anyway, he installed the new fixture where the old one was instead of making a hole in the wall and pulling the electric down. I'm not an electrician but I really don't think it would of been that hard! Needless to say, this is what I have to live with and I have a feeling it won't be changing!

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A Little Dialogue

Me: "Asher, are you going outside?"

Asher: "Uh huh."

Me: "OK. I love you."

Asher: "I love you, too."

Me: "Ah, you do?"

Asher: "Uh huh."

Me: "Thank you."

Asher: "I peed on your floor. Sorry."

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My cute husband

Geoff and I are constantly battling over whether or not he is "allowed" to grow abundant amounts of facial hair. He wants to grow it out; I want it shaved everyday. I finally gave in and let him grow it out a little bit and look what happened! I swear I don't know what I'm gonna do with him... Print Page