Black Friday and (almost done) Fire Pit

( That's not me of course but that is what I looked like grabbing my stuff...not the girl

in front the lady in the white jacket in the behind her. Cute, huh?)

So I have officially completed my second annual Black Friday shopping experience. So much fun!! Much better than last year. I shopped alone last year.....all together now...ahhhh. Poor me. I did meet up with some friends eventually but it really was so much more fun with a friend this year. My mom is in town and she was going to come with me but then my neighbor called and asked if she could come with us. I told her that that would be fun and told my mom, well I think that she was excited for the excuse not to go. She very quickly told me how fun it would be to go with my friend and that she didn't have to tag along. She got to sleep in. It was not to bad outside either. Last year it was sooooo cold, but this year not to bad. It snowed/rained the night before so there was a cloud cover to keep some of the warmth in. It was still probably in the lower 30's.

Anyway here it is now at 5:30 and I have had 2 1/2 hours of sleep and I really don't know what I am doing writing in my blog. I guess that I wanted to document that I really was out there and that I pretty much finished my shopping. Such a nice feeling, being done. I just have to keep telling myself not to buy anything else, that the kids have plenty and to just be done with it. It is going to be a really fun Christmas. I think the kids are going to go nuts over their presents. There isn't hardly anything cuter than a kids face on Christmas morning. So precious, I can't wait.
I also wanted to update the fire pit. It is pretty much done. I think it looks really cool. Ryan still wants to clean it up and polish up the stone and then next year he is going to lay down the flagstone around it. He worked really hard on this, and he did a great job.

Twilight Junkie

My friends and neighbors Ashely and Cassie at Twilight


Okay, I'm a total dork! I love Twilight. I know, I'm a little old for it, but I wasn't the oldest one in the Theater last Friday. I got to go to the movie with 10 other moms that I know. We stood in line for 1 hour in the cold to see this movie. It was totally sold out and the crowd was CRAZY. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people clap, talk, scream or make any unnecessary noise during a movie. Well....I picked a goodie. It might as well have been at a Hannah Montana concert. It was ridiculous. As for the movie, I would give it a B-. If you have read the book then you have to see it but I have to admit that I was disappointed. I thought it could have been soooo much better. The actor that played Edward was just down right corny at times. It was also to theatrical or something. Like they were doing a play. Alas, I will probably see it again and buy it when it comes out. Because I really, really love Twilight. Don't just take my word for it. Go see it for yourself and tell me what you thought.

Tagged: I am the luckiest woman alive

I've been tagged by Kierstin DeWyze to say why I'm the Luckiest Woman Alive. This is a really hard one because a lot of the time I don't feel that lucky. It's really made me think about why I am really lucky and all the things that I am thankful for.

I am the Luckiest Woman Alive because:

Reason #1: I have a beautiful family. My boys are my life. All of them. Everyday they do something to make me laugh. When I get my hugs and my "I love yous" nothing can make me feel more lucky than that.

Reason #2: My husband is the hardest working man I know. He is always doing something to improve our home and therefor our life. His work is very physically demanding and yet everyday he is up at 5:30am to do it again. I am lucky to have a man in my life that is willing to do the dirty work for me.

Reason #3: I have an incredible extended family. My immediate family and my in-laws. They are all so unique in their own ways and all add greatness into my life. My life is brighter because they are a part of it.

Thank you Kierstin for tagging me and making me think more about why I am so Lucky.

I tag Karen C. and Rachelle C.

Another Project

For anyone who knows Ryan you know that he is a project guy. He is always doing some kind of home improvement or other kind of renovation. Some of the more recent projects have been our garden fence, completely taking down a travel trailer (that he built from scratch, another project of his) and hauling off all the scraps, a cat house/mansion, oh yeah and completely updating and landscaping our entire house.
Currently he is working on a fire pit. I was a little worried about this one. I think it will be really cool to have a fire pit where we can have fires (of course) but also big enough so that we can cook dutch oven in it. But I was generally worried about the size and location of it.


We talked about and agreed on this location behind out house. We do have a rather large back yard with a lot of location options but we wanted to take into consideration future projects. Because we have a huge list of them.

This is Ryan with his hole and foundation. The river rock was all recovered from our yard and saved specifically for this project. His plan is to use the forms that he made to build up sides with concrete and the rock.

I think it will look really cool when it is done. We have a bunch of flagstone that we got from our neighbors when Ryan took apart their fireplace in their basement. We are going to use it to lay around the pit so that we can have a sitting area. And if you can see the stump in the background, we are going to use that to make a table. It was an apple tree that was in our front yard that fell over. Hes just going to bury the roots and then he is going to build a top for it. Cool huh.


Anyway that is what he is working on now, Never mind that it is like 40 degrees outside. And if it looks big to you that's because it is. Really big. Hopefully it should be done in a week and I'll update you then.

Happy Halloween

I got to help in both of the kids' classes this year! We had a great time in Hayden's class. I helped them make spider crackers for their treat. The kids all seemed to enjoy them. They also had a story, game and a craft. Hayden couldn't wear his mask to school so he was a vampire instead. When we walked out of School together the weather felt perfect and there was a little breeze going with the leaves all falling and all the kids in their costumes. Hayden looked around and said " it really looks like Halloween today!" and it did :)

In Porter's class I was in charge of the craft and my neighbor and I used this slime recipe that she had for it. I turned it into a potion that Porter's Grandma "the witch" gave me (she was born on Halloween, so she always claims to have a little witch in her) ;) . The kids thought it was so funny to mix ghost boogers (glue) and goblin blood(green colored water) with spider eyes(borax) and ghost pee(water). Really cute. This is Porter with his friend Danner dressed as spideys. Apparently they wear the same thing often and the teachers couldn't get over that they had the same costume on.

This is Porter's Best Friend Mairyn, she is also our neighbor. They are a cute pair. The tallest and the shortest in the class.

Then it was time to go trick or treating. The boys all looked great. However much I hated Hayden's costume it made him happy for the night. He just kept saying.."Halloween is supposed to be about scary stuff mom". Whatever.

Owen as a cute little lizard, dragon, dinosaur thing. Whatever you want to call it. He even got called a Hippo... but I'm not sure I see that.

Porter as Spidey. He loves this costume and actually wears it on a regular basis. Cutie.

Hayden dressed as Jason from Friday the 13th. Did you notice the bloody knife. Oh yeah, he's authentic. Halloween is supposed to be scary...Halloween is supposed to be scary. He's just growing up to fast.

We Had a Great Halloween!!!

Great Friends, Great Costumes, Great Candy

And Great Weather!

Great Night!

Redneck tooth extraction

Coming Soon!!!