Ok, so it wasn’t really a “battle”, but because of my competetive nature and always feeling compelled to be the “best”….I made the best scarecrow. I asked, and everyone agreed….mine was the best.
Oddly enough, my dad thought that the children were going to help with these, but in the end it was the adults that finished them up. I have to admit that Tessa helped me with quite a bit of it, though. Here are the other (loser) scarecrows:
It’s Viewmont’s Homecoming week and I have been busy helping the students to celebrate.
I’m in charge of two different “clubs” at the school: Best Buddies, and the Jr. Class Officers.
So far, we’ve decked the halls, and entered the door decorating contest…which is shown in the picture (and doesn’t do it justice). It’s a fantastic mosaic viking that I am very proud of. We’ve had lots of compliments on it and I think we should frame it.
Tomorrow is my birthday and I get to ride in the homecoming parade and then travel up the mountain to the “V”. The Jr. officers are in charge of the “lighting of the V”. We will be stringing lights and sitting up there during the entire football game. Luckily, I will get to stay in my pimped out van watching a movie in the parking area, as I’m pregnant and the hike up to the V is very steep, dark and dangerous looking. Hopefully all of the kids in my charge make it!
Our co-worker Nate is having a baby very soon, so we decided to throw him a “Baby Bath” before the little tyke gets here. I did all the planning for the event so that I could add to the material for my book. 
Using my fanstastic new photoshop program, I made some really funny invitations with some clipart I found on google images. I then went to town with the rubber ducky theme. I decorated the room with rubber duckies made from construction paper and then floated a few real ones in the lemonade. For food, we had homeade frozen banana yogurt and cookies. It was very yummy and most people had seconds.
As displayed in the first picture, we made Nate dress up in a bathrobe, shower cap, and hold a sponge on a stick. He was a very good sport. For one of the games, we played “guess how big around Nate’s belly is?” Each person had to cut the string to how large they thought it was. It was hilarious…and again, he was a good sport.
For party favors, I got some cute Country Time Lemonade candies from Honks and put them in cellophane bags and tied them with a little duckie. Prizes for the games were bottles of yellow body scrub…that I also got at Honks. By the way… 88 cent Tuesdays at Honks= Awesome.
Nate mentioned that he has never been to a baby shower before, but I bet after this experience, he’ll want to.
I really wish that my kids didn’t have birthdays one week apart. It would really help with the “sickness” that I have. Each year, I consider not having a party for one of them, but each year I do them anyway. I guess you could say that it’s a hobby of mine. Besides, after I write my book and sell a million copies, it will all be worth it.
So Nate’s party was on Saturday, and I must say that I really out-did myself on this one. Even a few strangers at the park commented on how outstanding it was, and of course, I really ate that up.
Nate has liked “BatBan” since he could barely talk and even dressed like him for Halloween when he was 18 months old. So, it was inevitable that he would want a Batman party eventually. We started with some awesome invitations which I made myself, spending just $2.00 total. I found a template for a bat mask online and I used clipart for the bat symbol in the background.
We decided to hold the party at the park, which is free and has plenty of covered table space and loads of free entertainment for the kids. I picked up a few pizzas from Little Caesars, it cost $15. The pizza was accompanied by a batman fruit roll up. We had lemonade to drink. All together the food cost about $20.
I made three things for the kids to take home with them: bat capes ($1.50 each), bat cup/mugs ($1 each), and bat signal flashlights ($1 each). So, total I spent for each child was $3.50, coming to $42 for 12 kids.
I spent about $5.00 decorating the table. I used black plastic table clothes and sponge-painted yellow bats on the sides. I used yellow plates atop batman coloring book pages that I printed from the internet. I then, provided crayons so that the kids could color their place mats.
After the kids put on their masks and capes, they searched for “villains” , which they really enjoyed more that I thought they would. For this, I just printed out pictures of 12 different batman villains, put them in plastic sheet protectors, rolled them up and tied with some twine. I had Joey “hide” them in the park.
For cake, I decided to do cupcakes to make things simple. I topped them with yellow frosting and then rolled the edges in chocolate sprinkles. I printed out some batman sybols and had Joey glue them together with toothpicks while he watched the Jazz game. They were very easy and cute. They didn’t really cost anything because I already had all the ingredients for these puppies.
So there you have it: fantastic Batman party for 12 kids for only $62 total. I’ll now take my bow.
Here are all the details on the outstanding party that I threw for Tessa. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but c’mon….I am freaking awesome. Tessa really likes to sing “old McDonald” so we decided to go with the barn theme. It all started with the CUTE invitation made from construction paper and my printer. Total cost: $4.00
I planned to have the shin-dig at Wheeler Historic Farm which is free to the public and has a lot of space for a nice picnic. Unfortunately, it had rained all morning and was quite chilly and muddy….so we had the picnic at our house instead after we visited the farm. They have hay rides for $1.50, duck food for 50 cents, and you can milk a cow for 50 cents. We had planned to do each of the activities, but it was too muddy for the hay ride. The kids had A LOT of fun just feeding the aggressive geese, looking at all the animals, playing in the treehouse, and finally milking the cow. The total cost at the farm was $8.00.
For the picnic, each child got a sandwich, bag of cheetoes, and “my little pony” fruit snacks all placed in a red “fast food” basket. I got the baskets at the D.I. for $1 for all of them. The PB&J sandwiches were in the shape of a chicken. They were easy to do using a cookie cutter, and cheap to make. The entire dinner cost about $6 total. I bought $5 foot longs from subway for the adults to eat, which cost $20 total.
The party favors where little plastic barns with toy animals inside and a few “cow tail” candies wrapped up in a clear cylophane bag and tied with a red bandana. The total cost for eight kids was $24.00.
I made a cow cake based on a picture I found on the internet. It was super easy to do and only cost about $4 to make.
And there you have it. Cute party for a 3-year-old. The total cost was $72. I am saving these pictures for the book I’m gonna write one day.
I became a “master” last spring and in doing so became an “expert” in the field of managing para-educators. I put together a slide show presentation and taught teachers how to manage/supervise their aides…in a nutshell.
I was excited to get an email a couple weeks ago from Cindy, my former professor, asking me to be a guest lecturer for her class. I was tickled pink to be able to do it because I’m sick and wrong in so many ways. I guess that it just makes me feel good when people actually care about what I have to say….and so much that they want me to talk for 3 hours straight!!
Well, I must say that it went very well and they seemed impressed for me. My self esteem grew three sizes that day.
There is an episode of “Friends” where Monica works really hard to remodel their new apartment (after moving across the hallway) to make it suitable for her friends to hang out in just so that she could be the hostess again. When all of the friends finally come over and start to eat her food and enjoy her living space, she lays down on the couch and falls asleep saying, “I’m always the hostess”. Well, I can totally relate to Monica because I love to be the hostess. It’s sort of my hobby. My cousin Becky and I, we have this in common and love to come up with all sorts of party ideas. We are going to write a book one day.
I hate football. I don’t understand it and it looks and sounds like Japanese to me when it’s on. I can’t follow it at all. Regardless of this fact, I threw a superbowl party on Sunday. It was actually Joey’s idea and I acted as if it was a pain and that I didn’t want to, but secretly I was excited about getting to throw a party. I cooked shredded beef in the crock pot with mexican seasoning to make taco salads. Everyone seemed to enjoy them.
I always spend more time on these things than really necessary, but it’s worth it in the end when I can sit on the couch, get ”tingles” in my stomach and think to myself, “I am always the hostess”.
I have been on the Activities Committee in my ward for almost three years. I am kind of sick of it, although I can admit that it’s a job that “suits” me. Last year, I suggested that we hold a “best pajamas” contest at our annual Groundhog Breakfast, and the Bishop thought that was a swell idea. It was a hit and has now become somewhat of a tradition.
I think it’s nice to just wake up and go. I did, however add a bra underneath…no need to scare everyone. I also wore Joey’s giant moose slippers, which were a hit. Many people wanted to vote for me (I think) but I told them that I didn’t want them to because I was counting the votes and didn’t want everyone to think that I fixed the election.
I made 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards, which were all sleeping masks with a cute tag to state the award. Everyone thought they were cute. What good ideas I have sometimes.
We celebrated my niece, Averi’s birthday on Saturday at Fat Cats in Ogden. We did some bowling, which is one of my favorite things to do. I often call bowling my own little “self esteem booster” because it’s one of the few things that I can actually win. I also enjoy taunting Joey about losing to me. He tolerates it because he knows that he can beat me in EVERYTHING else.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since Averi was born. My how time flies. We gave her a Hello Kitty alarm clock because we thought it would come in handy when she wakes up for kindergarten. She has always been very smart for her age, so I’m sure she can handle it.
I drove by “Brooks” in Bountiful one day just before Thanksgiving and noticed some really cute “retro” looking aprons in the front window. Their cuteness was overwhelming so I stopped in to look at them and came out with the pattern and a mission to make all the females in my life an apron for Christmas.
My favorite cousin, Becky helped me put together all 13 aprons. She is a very good seamstress and I needed her help and equipment to make this happen. It took us two days work, but they look fabulous. We also had a fun time talking gossip and being funny till all hours of the night. We are by far the funniest cousins in the fam. 
I tiled the bathroom floor. Tiling is very hard work and I don’t think that I would like that to be my profession. If I were a rich (wo)man, la da da dee da da de da da, I would definitely pay someone to do this for me. But, doesn’t it look fabulous?
Traditionally, we put the tree up on the day after Thanksgiving. This year, however, when I tried to put up our tree, the pre-lit lights were not working on the bottom branches. A few explicitives later, I was trying to cut them out with wire cutters. I guess I cut in the wrong place because the entire bottom third of the lights went out. My first thought was to just throw it away and buy a new tree. But, Joe Joe insisted that I act like a pioneer and string the lights on myself. So, that’s what I did. I strung lights like in the old days. And, contrary to what Joe Joe was expecting, I let the kids help me hang the ornaments….in the back.
I learned how to make pies from my mom. She always made perfect pies and I always try to make them as perfect as hers were. I think I did pretty good this year. I made three kinds: pumpkin (of course), lemon meringe, and pecan. They were pretty, and pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.
I started working with people with disabilities (Joe Joe calls them “my people”) back in 1995 after I got sick of working at Albertsons. I worked in a group home with adolescents with severe autism. It was a life changing experience. In working there, I had my hair pulled many many times. I learned how to deal with such attacks very well.
And now, thirteen years later, I teach others how to manage people with difficult behavior. Here’s a shot of me demonstrating the hair pull release. Look how mean Scott looks! I think he’s got it out for me.
When I get home from grocery shopping, I like to spread out all of the groceries onto the table or countertop. I point out all of the name brands and items to Joe Joe. I make him guess how much it cost at “normal” prices. Then, I tell him how much I paid for ALL of it and watch for the shocked look on his face. Normally, he’s not really that impressed with it and I’m pretty sure he finds this ritual to be annoying, but it is OH so much fun for me.
There were some really HOT buys last night! Everything in the picture here cost me $50. Let me say it again….$50!!! In case you can’t see some of the items, it included a DVD, lotion, shampoo, Motrin, Tylenol, laundry detergent, and many other higher priced items. I was high all night.
