I stink

As many of you know, my husband loves talk radio! A couple of weeks ago he found a new station and came home all excited about this new radio show he found. It is called Daniel Chapter One. So, this talk show is all about natural healing and homepathy stuff. Spencer is bound and determined to cure all of ailments naturally now.

I have had a wart (off and on) on my hand for many years now. I have had it burned off several times and I have removed it by over the counter methods several times as well--but it keeps coming back. I have even tried duct tape (my sweet husband is also dubbed "the duct tape MASTER!"). Blasted Virus!

Anyway, he came home the other day with Eziekiel Oil and said to try it on my wart. Isn't he sweet for thinking about me! I decided to try it today. And now I stink... Jared grossed out after I put it on and came over to help him with his math. It smells kinda like black licorice to me. So, it's not totally offensive, but now I'm a little self conscience. Jared and I are leaving in about 15 minutes to a K12 Gingerbread Wonderland activity at BYU. Hope it wears off a bit. Oh well, I don't care! I just thought I'd share my embarrasement and give everyone a chuckle at my expence! I'm laughing at myself, at least.

Linus loves his blanket

We had a great scout den meeting last night and I just wanted to put a plug out there for Project Linus!

We had Judy come from Project Linus to talk to the boys about her charitable organization that donates blankets to children who need comfort. They primarily donate their blankets to hospitals, but she talked about how this December they would be delivering many blankets to the less fortunate at the Indian Reservations.

After Judy's presentation, we made three fleece blankets. The boys had such a great time!! I, of course, had the blankets prepped and ready to go for the boys (make sure you check out the web site to see specifications and directions--we did the no sew fleece blanket). They turned out so great!

So... If there is anyone out there who needs an idea for doing service with children or anybody... I highly recommend logging on to www.projectlinus.org. Find your local representative. Give them a call. Maybe have them visit your group. Make some blankets!!! You will provide a great service to a child in need of comfort!!

You might be wondering how I found out about this organization... In case you didn't know... When Owen was almost three, he fell out of the 2nd story window over
the garage onto the driveway. We rushed him to the emergency room and ended keeping him over night at the hospital to make sure he was okay. While he was there, he was presented with all sorts of cool stuff to make his stay less scary. He got a "hero cap" and a fleece blanket from Project Linus. He still loves that blanket and sleeps with it almost every night.

Can this really be happening?

Just watched the Election results...

Spencer summed it up by saying, "reminds me of Star Wars... when Queen Amadalla says, 'so this is how freedom dies, with thunderous applause'"

Our Constitution is hanging by a thread...

God bless America, land that I love...

Trick or Treat?

I have posted a lot tonight to get caught up, so make sure to keep going...

Here are my little trick-or-treaters ready to go collect their "booty."
Hanna was a cowgirl again this year. I was so glad that she wanted to reuse this darling costume that I made for her two years ago. It won't work another year though... Jared is Ben 10. He painted the shirt himself and is very proud of it. Owen is a Clone. Couldn't get him to wear the mask... Spencer put on his scary, matted, discusting Howard Stern Wig and camo. Don't really know what he is... just scary!






As I was arranging the jack-o-lanters for picture taking, my sneaky husband was watching me out the window and thought it would be very fun to try to scare me when I came back in. Let's just say he got me good! I screamed so loud that he felt bad. Then of couse we had a good laugh about it... Jared did the Cyclop. It looks really cool in the dark bacause of the "stitches" that he carved really show up good! Spencer did Jack, I did the happy pumpkin, Owen did the jaggedy smile and spiral eyed pumpkin and Hanna did the happy one with a bow over the right eye. Fun stuff!



Here is my Witchy Poo!

Halloween Piano Recital

Both Jared and Hanna participated in Grandma's KIDS ONLY piano recital the Saturday before Halloween. They both played very well! All the music was Halloweeny music and all the kids were in costure. They had a ton of treats and a costume parade. It is such a honored privledge to be able to help out with this event every year.

Owen lost a tooth!

Owen managed to wiggle this tooth out in two days. I don't think it was really ready. But Owen was determined! That tooth didn't stand a chance! Owen got a president dollar coin and a dollar in quarters from the very generous Tooth Fairy. Pretty special! I don't think we will see a tooth replacement soon...

By the way, at Owen's last eye apointment we got the GREAT news that Owen is done patching!!! The vision therapy has done it's job and his eyesight has drastically improved enough that we don't need to patch anymore! Happy Dance!!! At his next appt. in December, he will get a full eye exam and a prescription change.

The piles I promised

Okay, without further aidu (how the heck do you spell that word??)...

My piles... See, I told you they were bad. I parred them down a little, but the craft room is still pretty bad.

It is always a work in progress...

The Halloween Open House of all Halloween Open Houses

In case you didn't know, my Mother-In-Law in the Queen of Halloween! She throws the biggest party on Halloween Night! She has enough food for the masses! This year was my FAVORITE year ever! We were able to invite a few friends: My kindred spirit Laura B. (who was my VT companion years ago) and the C. family (neighbors two houses down from us). We were able to invite my brother Alen and his family and my sister Sherilee and her family. My mother was unable to go because whe was still recovering from her foot surgery and my grandparents had a previous engagement. But, of course, the entire O. clan was there to enjoy as well! Not to mention the bazillion other people that I didn't know!

Here is a mere sampling of the food... I didn't even take pictures of the downstairs table or the "juice bar"



I had the best time catching up with Laura and then with Marci and my sister & sister-in-law. Spencer, Gary and my brother Alen yapped the night away talking politics and American History. Spencer said that it was his favorite year, as well! The kids had the best time running all over the place with thier cousins and friends and Trick-or-treating in a fun neighborhood that gives out king-sized candy bars and cans of pop! Just what they need!

Here is me and Laura. I always forget to take pictures at the open house, but I was determined to remember this year! I haven't gotten a picture with Laura in YEARS!


Marilyn, my sister-in-law was my favorite costume! She had a pillow tucked into her pants, had curlers in her hair and was wearing p.j.'s and a bathrobe. SOOOO CUTE! I am a party pooper, I didn't dress up...


Here is my brother-in-law Mark with his son Ryder--the CUTEST scarecrow EVER! So sad that Myia's head was turned, she was darling as well...


Of course, I think I gained 5-10 pounds! You see, we are the benefactors of all the leftovers! I have enough ham and dessert in my freezer for about 6 meals! The past several days we have been having leftovers. I have actually been craving fresh foods, so I picked up one of those enormous bags of carrots at Costco when I was there on Saturday and I have been juicing to try to balance out the junk intake. It truely makes a difference how I feel!

Well, I took down Halloween inside today. I have yet to take down my Witchy Poo from outside, though. It decided to rain pretty good today, so I'll save that for another day... I did however trudge through the rain to go VOTE today! Hope you did, too!!

Ramblings

So much going on in the world... What is up!? (Okay, I guess I know the answer to that question...) The economy is crumbling and our leaders are lying to our faces... "we are not in a recession." Give the American people more credit, Mr. President! And WHAT is up with the "bail-out?" It is more like a sink hole! Not what the American people need!! Yeah... Like I've said before, we have great timing for putting our house up for sale... If we sell it will definately be a miracle.

We have had one showing of our house. ONE! Actually, Spencer is pleasantly surprized that we have done so well.

Despite the incredible frustration I feel in our government leaders(Don't even get Spencer going on the topic...), I am hopeful. Thank heavens for the gospel! I really do feel peace knowing that we are as prepared for these times as we could be...

What more can I say?

I am taking the Scouts to the BYU planetarium tonight. Should be a beautiful night to look at the stars and enjoy God's creation!

It's official!

Okay, the sign is up... can you see it?

It's official. Our house is on the market. So, if I spontaniously combust at the mention of the sign, forgive me... I'm still in disbelief, but I know the reality will hit me soon! Even so, this still doesn't mean we are definetely moving... but it is a possibility...

We have a fancy tour that you can check out at:
http://www.homepix.tv/D89/ockey

While Marshal still has some pictures to swap, it looks pretty good. Enjoy the pretty music and think to yourself, "this soft, soothing music makes me want to buy this house...*sigh*..."

Most projects are done... although I still have quite a list of to-do's, as does Spencer. Spencer keeps telling me, "We sure have good timing, don't we? Let's just wait until the economy is in finacial ruin... that's a great time to list a house!" Yeah, seems weird. But, I know somehow everthing will work out the way it is supposed to. We have done our part. Hey, we might end right back where we began!

I tried to upload the flyer. Didn't work. So, I'll post some pictures here just in case you don't want to go see the fancy tour. Doesn't my house look clean! I can assure you, that it didn't stay that way -- even for 10 minutes! In fact, on the tour, we had to retake several pictures after I noticed that things were not the way they were supposed to be. Hanna had dumped Webkins all over her bed, Jared had pokemon cards all over his bed, etc. I should have had pictures taken of the piles I am still working on that you don't see in the pictures. Actually, that would be amusing to save for my next post! Keep us in your prayers...

Living Room

Kitchen

Family Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Hanna's Room

Mud Room

Main Bath

Owen's Room

Jared's Room

Downstairs Bath

Deck/Back Yard
Bonus Room (This is the playroom side. The craft room side will be in the next post about my piles!)

Changes

The kids are all in school. I only took a picture of Owen on his first day, and it was when I picked him up, so his shirt is untucked and everything. So far, so good. Hanna and Owen like their new schools. I ran into an old high school friend (Celesta!) at Owen's school curriculum night. It was such a blast from the past and so fun to see her. Not everyday that I run into friends from Nebraska!

Jared loves homeschool. I am struggling. I just don't think I am cut out for it anymore... Jared is just not improving academically and he is falling farther and farther behind. We truely love our time together and it makes me sad that I am just not good enough for him... It has been a hard, discouraging week for me. I actually took Jared to the Sylvan Learning Center today for an evaluation. I really wish that I knew how to help him. I wish I knew how to find resources that could help and not cost an arm and a leg--literally.

Here is some great news! The cousins have finally moved here!! Spencer's brother, Mike, and his family arrived Aug 21st and they just got moved in this past weekend. My brother, Alen, and his family got here in July so that Alen could get ready for school (he is a History teacher at the new Charter school in Eagle Mountain). They are still living with my mom and are still looking for a house. We have gotten together with each of them on a few occations now and are loving having them so close!




And for one of the biggest changes of all! My HAIR! I finally had 10 inches to cut off to donate to Locks of Love!!! Yipee!!! I feel so light and bouncy!! When Valerie was done, she looked at me and said, "now there's the Tamra I know!" I just love it. I can just wash and go -- literally! All I have to do is run a little product thru it and violla! Getting ready is so much faster!!! So happy! I need to have someone take a picture of me with it dry sometime soon. Just look at the natural wave kick into high gear!







Well, I guess another big change would be our house. We have almost completed all of the big projects on our list to get it ready to put on the market. Our goal is the 15th--5 days away... I will have to post pictures of the progress when I take them. We are not committed to moving, we just want to have things ready for the chance that this is what we are supposed to do... We shall see!

Other Summer Highlights

Just going through my pictures and trying to get caught up on the blog...

Here is Hanna snuggling with Candy. Such a sweet dog!


It looks like I didn't blog the State baseball tournament, either... It was a long, hot tournament. Inbetween games, Spencer would practice with Jared. Well, Jared's team ended up forth in our district. Jared finished off strong. I bet if the ball would have only gone straight ahead it might have gone out of the park, but it went to the other field instead. Oh well! All I can ask is that Jared ends this baseball season feeling good about himself! And he did! Daniel was there to cheer him on and give him a "lucky piece of paper." We went out for ice cream after it was all over!



My mom invited us daughters to Eden, Ut for a girls weekend getaway! We had so much fun swimming, playing games, going out to eat, watching movies, and being silly!



Mark and Teresa had a new baby boy at the end of September. His name is Ryder (don't know if that is how they spell it?)! I think that name is so fitting considering that he is Mark's son. Mark LOVES motorcycles (even more than Spencer!), in case you didn't know! He is so sweet! He has a gentle spirit about him. I think he will look a lot like Mark in the eyes and have Teresa's mouth, like Myia.


We took the scouts to daycamp the day before Pioneer Day this year. Of course they had a BLAST! They made swords out of PVC pipe and water noodles and had a huge battle! It was so fun--they had no mercy on they leaders! Jared got the prize for having the coolest boat for the raingutter ragatta. He had drawn pirates on deck, cannons on the side and had the sail all crazy--like a pirate ship! He was pretty proud!



And the last big bang of summer was a pool party for the winning Tigers! It was at the most awesome saltwater pool I have EVER been to! The boys jumped off a cliff, created chains going down the slide and had so much fun! They didn't want it to end. I thoroughly enjoyed the perfect water myself. It felt so good!
(Just realized this piture of the three kids together was another time swimming--actually at 7peaks waterpark--that was a fun time with the kids, too!)






Goodbye Lazy Crazy Days of Summer!