A Week of Escapades

So here it is, a week before we leave to Mexico, and wouldn't you know it'd have to be a crazy, hectic week - shocking!

Frame Disaster:
Tonight is my YW in Excellence for Mutual (a Wednesday night activity for our young women ages 12-18 in church) and I volunteered to make these cute frames that have all of President Hinckley's "Be"s. Anyhoo it's super cute, but can I just say that the frames were a nightmare. I bought cheap frames from WalMart that were plastic thinking I could spray paint them and it would be no biggy. Well think again. I used up 3 cans of spray paint and you could still see the original color bleeding through. To makes matters worse, the last day that I put another coat on it was cold outside so it looked like the paint cracked. I think it looks horrible. I ended up getting some craft paint primer and painted each of the 13 frames again - then went over it again with a normal coat of white. It took me well over 2 hours. The project is done - YEA for that, but I think the frames look hideous and I don't want anyone to know I did them. I think we should have thrown them all away, bought a nicer frame, and started fresh. I got out voted though so we'll see. I hope the girls will like them anyway. Dell thinks they look really nice . . . that's what any good husband would say after seeing their wife freak out over painting 13 frames for the 20 bazillionth times!

Our toilet fiasco . . .
So our toilet started leaking around the base. I got tired of it having a constant rim of water so decided to take action. I asked my dad what he thought and he said to tighten the nuts around the bolts that holds the toilet down - sometimes it can get loose and water leaks. Well I tried that and it seemed to make it worse - instead of a little water there was now a puddle. Knowing that my in-laws are coming on Saturday, and we have to get this fixed ASAP I went to Lowe's to see if I needed to get a new washer or something for the bolts. I talked to the guy and he said I needed to get a whole little wax ring replacement kit. I asked him what I needed to do, bought the stuff, and came home to fix the problem. I'm actually pretty proud of myself . . .this is me patting myself on the back . . . anyhoo the first thing I did was shut the water off and disconnect the hose from the wall to the toilet. Then I took a utility knife and cut all around the toilet to unseal the caulk. After that I scooped all the water remaining in the toilet out so it wouldn't leak all over the floor and then waited for Dell to get home. Once he got home he picked the toilet up and moved if off its "sitting spot". We, or I rather, had to clean all the prior wax ring out of the way and clear a new spot. It was pretty gross. The wax is like straight grease. So we got that cleaned up, put a new wax ring on, positioned it just right and placed in back in tow. After I tightened it back up I caulked around it (like 4 times because I didn't like how it looked) and then we were done.

Wouldn't you know it works like a champ no. No more leaking!! Dell said normal people would've called a plumber. I told him that may be true but normal people aren't trying to pull off Mexico and Christmas within a month of each other!!

One for the history books . . .
My sister, Kylee's volleyball team made it to State in volleyball. This is the first time Othello has ever made it this far. She had a GREAT District tournament last weekend and State is this weekend, here in Tri-Cities. We're so excited for that . . . go Ky!!

Picture Taking Nightmare

So Alexa turned two at the end of September and I hadn't gotten her 2-year pictures taken yet. I know that's a ridiculous thing to have stress you out . . . but none-the-less it's been nagging at me in the back of my mind. I'm usually "Johnny on the spot" when it comes to getting things like that done. Anyhoo with Lindsy's wedding and Halloween and everything else consuming my time I've let it slip.

I knew getting her pictures done would be a trial. Maybe that's the real reason I've put it off. I ususally like to go to JCPennys to get their pictures done - that's where I've always done them in the past - but I remembered that at Alexa's one-year photo op she had a hard time there because the room is dark and I think the lights scared her. So we're in Walmart (one of my thousand trips there - living so close to Walmart is a curse . . . they get all my money!) and I decided it might be a good place to do it because #1 we're frequent WalMart visitors and she knows the store and #2 the room isn't dark and scary looking. So I book an appointment for first thing today.

Of course our morning is chaotic and everything goes wrong so we show up late (another bonus for going to WalMart - it's ok to be late - at JCPennys they'd bump you off the list). So we go in and she immediately FREAKS out. Crying, closing her eyes, just totally uncooperative. We tried for over 30 minutes to get even ONE shot to no avail - even with me holding her she refused to let go of my neck. I was SOOOO MAD at her. I was gritting my teeth, trying to bribe her with candy afterwards, everything. She didn't care. Needless to say she won the battle and we left WalMart with no pictures taken. I'm still so mad! Dell thought it was funny when I called to vent. I think maybe next time he should take her and then we'll see who's laughing!!!!

So we get home and I took some of her here. I guess having a lame textured wall as a background is going to have to do because that's all I can do and when she's older and asks me why her 2-year old picture is a lame one I'll let her read this and see that it was all her fault! :) Oh the joys of motherhood!!

What's your vote?? Which one should I blow up to be an 8x10 for display??

Halloween & A Wedding

The end of the month was out-of-control busy for our family! We had Halloween and a wedding all wrapped up into one. My sister, Lindsy, got married on November 1st. So what that meant for us was coming a day early to help get everything prepared. It actually worked out well that way because our ward here was doing a truck-or-treat on Halloween, which isn't my favorite. I don't like them because usually it's really cold and dark which means you hurry through to get the candy and then go home. No visiting occurs, no checking out all of the cute costumes because everyone's bundled up in coats etc. etc. You get the picture. Anyhoo my parents' ward does a big party. They have a simple dinner and then a carnival and then have everyone make a huge circle in the gym where all the kids go around and get their candy that way. I much prefer Othello 1st Ward's methods! So our kids got to enjoy that. Ashlee was Ariel from the Little Mermaid and Alexa was a ladybug.



After the party we ran the girls home to my mom's and then came back to the church to start the wedding decor. We have a large family and extended family so there was plenty of hands to make the work light. It went by relatively fast and we decided to stay until it was completely done so the next day we wouldn't have to come back until it was time - and so that we could concentrate solely on the food aspect of things. I guess the food was a hit (so all of our hardwork paid off) because quite a few people asked my mom at the reception who catered the food. My mom was like, "ummmm . . . our family" . . . we got a kick out of that. Everything looked so nice and went perfectly. I can honestly say I'm glad it's over. I think my poor mom is completely worn out. She worked her little heart out (I'd expect nothing less!).

Anthony & Lindsy Prows

So our weekend was a whirl. I'm glad this week is seemingly slow so we can get caught up. . . I'm pretty sure my furniture would like to get dusted this week and my floors mopped since I skipped out on it last week. Gross, I know . . . hey cut me some slack . . . didn't you read about my weekend! :)

A bride for a day

Ashlee & Haley

Alexa enjoying herself at the reception

Alexa happy now that we're on the way home!