Griffin Said

During Sacrament meeting today, while I was trying to stay engaged, Griffin found it urgent to tell me:

1. I can't decide what I want for Christmas!

2. My tooth hurts. Then I asked to see it. That tooth was hanging by 3 molecules! I told him to just pull it out. He told me he wanted to lose the tooth at school because then he would get this cool tooth holder. He really wanted that. After church, at home, Griffin told me that he lost his tooth during primary.

3. I know there was a third funny, Griffin thing, but I just can't remember. Next time I will take notes.

Fires in The Area

This picture was taken at the stop sign right by our house. The big "cloud" there doesn't look so bad in the picture (taken with my cell phone), but it is grey with flecks of yellow/red in it from the huge fire.

We hear/see helicopters all the time doing their duty to help put out the fire. I believe it is 10 days old now. Our cars are filled with soot. Oh, I think I have some pictures of that too!

Here is the roof of Chase's car. That is ALL soot from the fire. See the big white flakes? That is what we breath in!! No recess or outside practices for the kids at school. In fact, I heard that the cross country team gets on a bus; is driven about 1 hour away; they run, do their training; then return back to the smokey, unhealthy air.

The AHS varsity football team had to play their opening game against Monrovia in the city of Fullerton. AHS lost.

Ok, here is just our walkway. More soot. It looks way worse in real life. In Burbank, it is not so bad. Candice was amazed at the difference. I did have to point it out to her.

I took "first day of school" pictures. This was the sky that morning! That is the sun! It did not really look that dark. It was very grey. The sun was very red/orange because of the smoke, fire, etc.

The sky today looks MUCH better. We see some blue spots. I have not smelled smoke today either.

It's Good When You Win It, BUT It's Better When You've SOLD It!

In about March of this year I applied for a coupon for a Digital TV Converter from the government. I knew the time was coming when just turning on the TV without cable would not work. It was supposed to be in June. About 2 months later my coupon came. I went to Walmart, got the converter, (I had to pay $10 dollars...the converter was in total $50, the coupon was for $40), plugged it in and waited for the digital change to come.

I have a TV in the kitchen; no cable, but nice to have and listen to while I cook and clean in there. The picture was never great, but I knew when the digital change came, the picture would BE GREAT.

The day came, my TV did not work at all! No sound, no picture. I don't know what the problem was. I think it has to do with living right up on the mountains. Somehow I got a stroke of genius (or maybe it was a lack of stupidity) and realized I had a cable splitter with an open "plug" to my cable for the family room. I bought a cord for about $5, plugged the cord into the splitter, plugged the other end into the TV. The kitchen TV then worked GREAT! I had cable, I could see and hear. It has been very nice.

So, what to do with that converter box??

On Tuesday I finally picked it up, took it to Walmart, waited in line, asked to please return the box. No she said. No receipt, no return. They would only exchange for the same item. That did me no good. I didn't want the thing.

I actually turned around to all the people in the waiting line; about 5 at the time; and loudly said, "does anybody want this, they can just have it?" Everyone just stared. One woman called out in her southern accent, "sell it on craigslist!"

I came home, chose ebay, put it up for sale, and today I got a note that it sold! I got my $10 back plus $4 for my troubles. How nice. I wrapped it up and it is on it's way to NY.

I currently have the set of World Book Encyclopedia's up at ebay. We'll see if they make me rich.

Mini Me Kitty

Kylie BEGGED for a new kitty. She promised to do ALL of the "taking care of"!

Here is he is...he is fun, playful and tiny:


The old cat does not really appreciate the new kitty. Just to show you their size in comparison, here is Quinn holding the old cat:


I am sure in a couple of months, the new kitty will be as big as the old one.

Hmm...7 pets and counting.

The Torture Device

Here it is:

That is Zak's mouth. Apparently, his mouth is in the shape of a "V"; it should be more like a "U". This device will spread it out and make more room for all that belongs in there.

Notice the little, teeny, tiny hole in the middle there. I have to put this "key" in that hole and rotate the hole back toward his throat. I do that twice a day. The first few days it was easy. It is getting harder to ratchet that thing back.

We have done it for one week. Maybe only one more week to go.

More stories and pictures tomorrow!

Shredded beef tacos again tonight. Yum.

Eagles on TV; Vick is playing.

Happy Anniversary!

Steven pointed out that it has been ONE MONTH since anyone has posted!

So it's an anniversary of sorts for us!

I will catch you up with pictures as I have the time.

Today I will tell you the "walk to school" story:

I figure Kylie and Griffin can walk to school; it is not far. Griffin does NOT enjoy the walk. He is so slow, he is almost walking backward. I continue to prod him along; to ask him questions; to get him talking about other things than what we are doing. About one block down the street he starts to complain of a stomach ache. I asked him if he had gone potty this morning.
G:"no"
me: "what!" you did NOT go potty?
G: no
me: really?
G: no, I didn't go potty
me: at all?
G: no
We walk, he holds his stomach. I told him he could go at school; I would wait by the bathroom door to make sure he felt better. We continue to walk at a world record slowest pace ever. We finally arrive at school, I take him to the nearest bathroom. He is VERY hesitate. He says he feels better; he doesn't have to go anymore. (What??) I try to encourage. He won't go. He seems very unsure to go potty in that bathroom where other big kids could be. I can understand that. I see a handicap bathroom, I suppose it is a one stall type of thing; I try the door. It is locked. I see Mrs. Bump who I know and ask her for help. She sweetly gives me the key to open the door. Griffin goes potty. He washes his hands; he feels better; I feel relieved. He stoically walks to his line-up area for his class.

I am hoping it goes better tomorrow.


NOW, I have a whole list of things to do!
I'll blog more later! Oh, I have some great stories: the Yosemite hike; Zak's torture device, Quinn's birthday, a new kitty...just to name a few.

Missed you!

NOT The Blair Witch Project

I realize, this picture is reminiscent of that movie, but it is really showing Griffin's 4th LOST tooth! Once again, it just fell out without him knowing when or where....maybe it is the Blair Witch Project! You can easily see his new tooth coming in. Do you notice a little Michael Strahan teeth action happening here?? hmm

New Cookie Recipe

So there was a girl in my ward that used to always make me these cookies. They were very good. Well, this girl got a boyfriend, and for some reason she decided she shouldn't make me the cookies anymore. So I made them myself.

1 cake mix (the white sparkly one is best - I forget what it is called)
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs

Oven at 350. I've made the cookies kinda smallish. Cook for 6 minutes, NO MORE. They'll appear really soft when you take them out, but after about a minute of cooling, you'll see they're perfect (or overdone).

Give it a try!

WHAT??

Have pirates taken over me blog??

Apparently, I made my post today on the Payne blog!

So, here is a LINK. It will be fun, like a treasure hunt!

Back To Where I Stopped

Now I'll share pictures of Steven's birthday....there are lots, just so you won't feel like you missed anything!

Have you guessed; I am a saver! Why throw away a perfectly good box when it still can be used? The joy in wrapping gifts in these boxes is great. They might think they are getting some See's candy, but they are not; nor are they getting a new camera. It's all part of the unwrapping joy.

His wrapped gifts:

What's it gonna be?

Burt's Bee's lip balm

The "See's Candy" box

Notice Griffin's tongue



Some car wash certificates:

A Krispy Kreme donut box....

More socks

It's a book. I thought it would be "Strategies for Settlers of Catan". It wasn't. It was a novel about martians.

More gift certificates. They are good most anywhere!

Is he getting a camera?? No it wasn't and I have forgotten what was in that box.

His "cake" - Cool Whip Delight. He was happy to have it!

But did you notice his closed EYES again in the picture??

I can fix that. There, much better.

Oh, it was pants in that camera box.

(Blogger, bugging me today, you can't really move the pictures around and I tried to put them in the right order, but I guess I didn't!)

Then Steven invited Josh S. over to play THE GAME.

It was a lovely evening.

Enough of the PAST, we will be moving into the future now!

Hope you enjoyed all the catching up.