Halloween 08

It's 8:41 on Halloween night and I'm calling it for this year. The kids have come down from their sugar induced highs and all is quiet again in the Whittaker household. I have to think that we are at the peak of Halloween fun for our family, with Jake still being young enough to love it, Sophie old enough to get it, and Wes and I wise enough to cherish it. We could not ask for a better neighborhood to spend Halloween night in. It is so legendary for it's delicious chili dinner (Thanks Baird Family!) and friendly trick or treating, that we draw families from miles away. We probably had over 100 kids stop by. Here are the highlights...

Sophie's super spooky spectacles.Princess Sophie shows off her stunning dress. I tried to persuade her to wear shoes better suited for trick or treating, but she would not hear of it. I am happy to report that she gracefully negotiated the curbs and asphalt, balancing her heavy bag of candy in the dark. She did not trip in her high heels once, just as she promised.Green skeleton man, Princess Aurora, and a young Jedi Knight. (Thanks Walmart $12.88 rack.)Imagine our surprise of running into John McCain and Sarah Palin at the neighborhood party. John was serious about wooing the voters and Sarah was dead ringer. She seriously could go to campaign events as a body double for Sarah.

(Wes and I dressed up as tired, middle-aged parents.)

And finally, The Haul. I figure it is at least ten pounds of candy. Sadly for the boys, they spend over 7 hours a day at school with the candy at my sole mercy. I figure it is a noble cause to protect their young teeth. Always the martyr, I am.

Pumpkin Carving Excellence

If you haven't yet carved your Halloween pumpkin, here are some great ideas for you courtesy of some very clever neighbors. Happy carving!

Fashion Sense

I will never, as long as I live, be the one to cast the first stone when it comes to fashion. My fashion sense consists of which Old Navy t-shirt to wear today and if it goes with my silver or brown pair of earrings. (The brown ones were just recently added after wearing the silver ones for 2 years straight.) Then of course there is the issue of whether to wear my $1.00 Walmart flip flops or the $6.99 Target pair (you know- if I am going some place fancy). It's sad, really. But not bothersome enough for me to do anything about it. Old Navy Hawaii t-shirts are comfortable after all.

But even a fashion impaired person like myself was taken back by Sophie's choices tonight. She was completely left to her own devices on this one. I especially love the shoe selections. To her credit though, the purse is a great addition to the ensemble. I am taking notes.

Note: Despite how it appears in this photo, Sophie is just sunburned from the football game yesterday, and not yet wearing make up.

Carnival Time

It is finally cooling off and by cooling off I mean only 90 for a high. Wes and I were commenting today how when it is 90 in October we think it is reason to celebrate our good fortune but when 90 hits in March we curse Mother Nature. I suppose it is all relative.

October and the nice weather bring on the festival/carnival/fair season and last night was no exception. We made the mistake of arriving early to the boys' school carnival with tickets in hand. This is a mistake because no one is in line yet. You can burn through a lot of tickets in a short time with three kids and a plethora of blow up jumping/climbing/sliding/racing activities at their instant disposal. For example, it takes about 4 seconds to slide down the giant blow up slide. At that rate, we could be broke in no time if it weren't for the crowds that mercifully slowed things down.

My kids all wanted to go in the petting zoo. Jake was bored, Sophie was terrified, but DB loved it and could have stayed there all night. He is great with animals. He is very gentle and just has a way with them. Should anyone have need for an animal whisperer, you know who to call. We should have raised him on a farm.

Jake, DB, and friend Luke make their way down the 4 second descent.Sophie tries her hand on the obstacle course. She has a future as a contestant on Wipeout.Dylan and a baby chicken.Sophie clings to mama instead of petting the llama.

Shhhhhhh!

Sophie is one of those kids who notices EVERYTHING. So recently she aired some grievances about being the only one in the family who sleeps alone. She explained to me that mommy has daddy in her room and Jake and DB are in their room and she is "all by myself". She has a valid point so we make a big deal about choosing something for her too take to bed with her every night. Sometimes it is a stuffed animal, sometimes a doll. (This was much easier and cheaper than having another child.) Anyway, last night she chose one of her dolls to take to bed. She spends several minutes creating the spot next to her, gently placing the baby's head on her pillow, then placing a mini blanket over the baby. Last night Wes went in after I had put her to bed to tell her good night. She quickly interrupted him and said, "SHHHHH! (with her finger to her lips) My baby is sleeping!!"

Follow up: I had my final visit with the Cardiologist yesterday and as expected I have a completely normal and healthy heart. Unfortunately it took several hundred dollars of testing to arrive at this conclusion. If you wish to contribute to my healthy heart fund you can make donations to WAMU acct. #22.... what's that? Oh never mind, apparently our bank has failed.

Daddy Daughter and October Fun

Sophie- all decked out for her date with Daddy to the big event.

The hang over after dancing the night away.

Sophie had the time of her life dancing with all her little friends at the Vista Peaks Ward Daddy Daughter Night. She was so excited to get all dressed up, and was fully aware of how pretty she looked. Wes has waited a long time to have a date for this event, so I am pretty sure he had a great time as well, even though my spies say that he spent most of the night perfecting his game on Guitar Hero. It's tough to go to an event that starts at your bed time when you are 2, but Sophie managed to party until 8:30, when fatigue finally caught up with her.

The boys also had dates this week with Grandma Karla and Aunt Kacee. They took them to the Pumpkin Festival and spoiled them rotten with all kinds of food and fun. Here is a picture of the pumpkins that they picked out and the new clothes they got. Thanks Karla and Kacee!

And finally in sports news, Jake ran in two touchdowns in a 20-6 victory over the Cowboys in yesterday's game. Go Broncos!

October Break

October break for the kids isn't so much a break for me, but it was kind of fun to be free from a schedule for a few days. Jake and DB got out at 2:00 all week for parent/teacher conferences, so the evenings have been especially long. But with weather as nice as it has been, it has given the boys the outdoor play time that they so crave after a long hot summer. The down side of living in the desert is that the time of year that you most want to be outside is also the shortest daylight days. My kids never have been the sedentary type and this week has been no exception. Jake would play football all his waking hours if he could. I suspect the kid could probably run a marathon with no problem at this point with the voluntary conditioning that subjects himself to.


The parent teacher conferences went off without incident, which with active boys is really all a parent can hope for. Jake is successfully keeping his "ring leader" personality in check and DB is holding his own despite being the youngest in his class. Dylan apparently is "very reserved" at school. I hope Mrs. Dyer didn't see the incredulous look on my face when she said that. (Think John McCain while Barack is talking about his health care plan in a debate.) At home Dylan is anything but reserved or quiet for that matter. He contributes significantly to the noise pollution in our home, so at least we know he has the potential to bust out. I'll take that assessment over trouble-maker all day long.


As for Sophie, she has quite the impressive social calendar. We are blessed to be surrounded by the cutest little friends for her. It has really made the transition of the boys going to school all day much easier for her. Here are some photos of just the past few days.

Brooke and Sophie play on the rocking "horse?"

Sophie gives lessons to Lani and Victoria about the art of tricycle riding.

Lindsey, Heidi, and Sophie play with our guest dog, "Cookie". Thanks for sharing, Kacee.

Sophie's Two-Year Check Up

I took Sophie in for her 2-year check up. She was a little reluctant to participate in the physical challenges like walking on her tippy toes and jumping. I know she can do these tasks, so I resorted to using Dora the Explorer references to get her to do it. For example I urged her to "catch the stars!" for jumping. It worked and she passed with flying colors. Of note is that Sophie continues her trend of being in the 95th percentile for height. She apparently drew from the same genetic pool as her cousin Kiki. If those height predictor web sites are to be trusted at all, Sophie will soon outgrow me and her two brothers. It calculated that she will grow to be 5'11". Time will tell...

Also this week, Wes and the kids and I went on a field trip to the County Animal Shelter. This is where all the stray, abandoned, and homeless dogs go. They have over 400 kennels of dogs starring at you with these pathetic little eyes, just begging you to rescue them. It's no secret how it ends for most of these pups. My kids ask for a dog daily, so this was a very dangerous move to take them here. I mostly don't want a dog. It would have to be the absolutely perfect fit for me to take on a new family pet. By perfect I mean little, minimal shedding, sweet and playful yet protective, willing to tolerate endless torment from three small children, no barking, doesn't beg for table scraps, and willing to lick the floor clean. There were a few pups that were hard not to be drawn to, but we did not find a perfect match on this visit. Wes claims that the right dog will choose us, not the other way around. What dog in their right mind would choose us? This could be a long wait.

Recession Proof Halloween

Super spooky!

I made chicken enchiladas for dinner. DB has some pretty stringent food rules. He does not like anything that does not have a first ingredient of high fructose corn syrup, has the slightest hint of spiciness, or if it is or was derived from a fruit or vegetable. So, the enchiladas were immediately ruled out on the basis of vegetables present and spiciness- despite the blandest possible preparation. So a plain tortilla for dinner it was. The bad news is that he ate a crappy dinner, but the good news is that we stumbled across the perfect Halloween mask, which after this week's stock market crash is pretty much all we can afford.

Learned Helpless

You remember Psych 101 and the learned helpless dogs. The dogs were shocked and given no way to escape. Then when they were given a way to escape none of them even tried. (Please don't call me PETA. It wasn't my idea.) Anyway, that is how it is with me and gardening. I've tried and tried without success and it has gotten to the point where I truly do not believe it is possible for me make anything grow. I try to blame it on the fact that it is over 100 degrees the majority of the year and nothing can survive the oppressive heat. That argument falls flat though when I see friends and neighbors with beautiful gardens. Last year, Wes and I spent at least $50 on preparing our garden. We bought special soil, seeds, fertilizer, and watered it just like the experts said to. The yield: one zucchini squash. That's one expensive side dish. So it has been just long enough that the aggravation has faded and I'm willing to give it one more try! One of my favorite sayings is:

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then if you still don't succeed, quit and try something else. Don't be a damn fool about it"

I can't remember if that was an actual quote from someone or if that was just my cynical inner voice adding on to the more well known saying that stops at the first sentence.

So this is it. If we again fail to at least recoup our cost again this year in produce, I am done with gardening forever.

Before photo of our alleged "garden".
This is a wonderful mature tree that shades a good portion of our backyard and about half our house. I really don't want to cut it down, but I also don't want this fence to collapse. The previous owners planted it about two feet from the fence, which was fine when it was pencil thin, but now the roots are causing some serious havoc. Any suggestions on how to remedy this situation would be appreciated. (Please don't suggest anything that isn't free. This is so far down on the list, it's not even funny.)

Ahhh, Conference Weekend

It happens twice a year... General Conference. I used to look forward to sitting in my pajamas watching church on TV drifting in and out of sleep to the soothing voices of our leaders. Now that I have kids, I don't so much see it as the vacation that I used to. The kids haven't quite gained an appreciation of this semi-annual tradition and complain endlessly that they are bored, so rather than tie them to the couch and force them to listen, I leave them to their own devices. As for Wes, I can honestly say that he never sleeps so soundly than when GC is on. I swear I saw drool this morning.

I thought I would share what happens with total lack of supervision for two hours:

Special thanks to Dave Osborn for leaving several hundred foam yellow balls at our front door. The ones you see are only the tip of the iceberg.

Bored with the conference proceedings, DB and Sophie cook up an escape plan. With the escape plan foiled, they settle on an episode of Dora on the one TV left that doesn't have old men talking on it.

Amidst the chaos, I did garner one message from Conference. It was President Monson's Sunday morning address where he urged me to appreciate the piles of laundry, the fingerprints all over the windows, and the craziness of life with young children. It passes all to quickly and one day you will miss those days. Always good to be reminded of that!

Homeland Security and Candidate "Handlers"

We live a couple miles from a huge Boeing plant in Mesa. Apparently there are certain jobs at Boeing that require high level security clearance from the US Department of Homeland Security. Our next door neighbors are seeking a position of this kind. So we have had four visits in the last couple weeks from Homeland Security employees asking all kinds of personal questions about the couple next door. This may make you feel safe that they are being so thorough, until I tell you what they preface each conversation with.

"Just so you know, due to the Privacy Act of blah blah blah, the applicant has the right to request transcripts from this conversation."

Suppose I thought that my neighbor was a terrorist. Do you think that I am going to dish on this guy about his suspicious behavior so that he can go read what I said about him when he lives 25 feet from where I lay my head at night? If you want candor, how about some assurances that I won't get offed if I tell you what I really think? (For the record, my neighbors are fine upstanding citizens and have given me no reason to suspect they are terrorists.) This is just one of many examples of why I don't want the Feds running anything that effects my life - especially health care.

I am relieved that the much anticipated VP showdown went off without any deer in the headlights moments. You know from my previous posts that I like Sarah Palin. I like her conservative values, her determination, and her character. And I believe she is smarter than her accent and vernacular leads you to believe. I will admit that I squirm at the folksy "ya" and "doggone it" and the dreaded wink, but that is who she is, and at least she isn't afraid to be who she is. I wish there had been less talking points and more content. It also would have been good if they had actually attempted to answer the questions.

Palin and Obama get a lot of grief about their readiness to be President. Ultimately, I really don't think that anyone is ready to be president. Where exactly do you get training to be president? Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were just governors. In the end it comes down to having the wisdom and judgement to surround yourself with experts and knowing the character of the person with their finger on the theoretical button.

On a side note...In the post debate discussions, I heard numerous references to the "handlers"of Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Handlers? What are they - circus monkeys? And finally, a little advice: Sarah please make sure in the future that your bangs don't interfere with your eye lashes. It is very distracting. And, Joe buddy, ease up on the Botox. A few wrinkles on your forehead just might remind people of your years of experience. At least Sarah still can blink.

I need a break from this election. It is keeping me up at night.