10.31.2008 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Well Happy Halloween everyone. I am happy to report it was not 10 degrees or negative 10 this year. It was a nice balmy 38 so we are thankful. Just incase... Bubba did get a WARM costume this year. He was a Red Dragon (Moo-SHoo actually I think from the Kung Foo Panda movie) Anyway, we trick-or-treated all the downtown businesses then went to Wendy's and 1 subdivision we like to hit again this year. We like it because Mr. Littrell (the Principal at Danielle's school) lives there, and last night we found out one of the teachers from Bubba's preschool lives on that street too. She recognized Bubba's "Trick or Treat" even though her husband was at the door passing out the candy. It was really fun. I got a great pic of Bubba Trick or Treating at the Littrell's - below he is talking with Mrs. Littrell (Rachel)

Danielle decided not to trick or treat (that's 2 years in a row!...it was just too cold for her and she had a bad attitude about not having EXACTLY the costume she wanted) but mommy & Bubba had a great time and got plenty of candy for them both to share. At the "1 candy a day" rule we will have candy till next Easter as usual. Daddy & Danielle passed out the candy at our house, and then she & daddy hit like 4 houses on our street. We filled our trusty cookie jar to the brim with both of the candy haul's. (Not to mention they got quite a bit the night before at the Awana Harvest Party)

Not to be outdone, Erick and his friend Steven were planning to head out to "scare some friends" as well. Erick is not so much into dressing up - he's too old for that apparently. Steven spent quite a long time actually sewing stuff onto his clothes and i helped out with the "makeup" (washable finger paints hahaha) so he could be the perfect zombie. He looked pretty cool. They had fun too.

10.26.2008 Puzzle Mania!

 

This is what is up lately in our house. PUZZLES! The kids LOVE putting them together. We got a few more recently, since winter is coming and we will be indoors a lot more! Bubba is working on up to 60 peice puzzles already - he's only 4 - he just loves doing puzzles all by himself. We got a 750 piece one to do together but it was just too much. We got a 300 piece Pig puzzle that we plan to do together (as a family) in the next few weeks. That should be a bit easier for us and the kids love to have the pleasure of accomplishment when it's done. This is what they did one night with a bunch of the smaller piece puzzles 24-60 pieces. Then we put the boxes on top to get ready to clean them up! FUN!

10.25.2008 Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze

Hallelujah! Ah, there are photos! Not because i got a camera (don't get too excited) but really bcuz DeRell's family is in town and his sister Cathy has hers! I couldn't wait to upload those photos! So the latest around here is...quite a bit!! Most of the house "stuff" got completed for their arrival - thank you ALL who helped out. We have a beautiful main bathroom (the only bad part is 1 of the 3 mirrors were broken in the new medicine cabinet) =(. Friday afternoon and evening we had nice family time, yummy dinner & desssert, etc. Today, Saturday, some of us (DeRell & I) slept in (exhausted from 3 late nights in a row!) and this afternoon headed out to find a pumpkin patch. We ended up at Qwivals (which didn't have a pumpkin patch to speak of but enough for some photo op's!!! ENJOY

 

Missie, DeRell and Bubba pose in the corn maze. Danielle was off running around the maze with Grandpa!

 

Uncle Randy, Cathy (DeRell's sister), Sadie and Danielle

 

The Sikora's pose for a pumkin pic (Cathy, Randy & Sadie)

 

The Coates Clan....Grandpa (DeRell Sr.), Cathy and DeRell

10.23.2008 So much to do, so little time...

Well last nite (Wednesday) went pretty well. Mainly bcuz i was able to leave the shop around 12:30 and hurry home. I got the paint and began painting the bathroom. Then busy Weds came in full force, Gymnastics, eat dinner, take kids to Awana. I came home and got the rest of main bath painted during Awana like i had hoped!

DeRell, Erick & Grandpa got the tub back in the Master (but we have a drip!) so overall a great day. We hadn't been able to get that part to fix the leak, and yesterday DeRell scored it at a Spa Mfg.place in Stevi. Woo-Hoo! Cleaned it all out, tested it, and besides the annoying drip it should be fine. Kids (and DeRell) are excited about being able to use the "big bathtub" again...like tonite!

Kids stayed up WAY too late again (like 10:30! i'm a bad mom i know!) and DeRell and I were up until about 1:30am or was it 2am?! Can't recall-i was on auto pilot. I (by this i mean "we") finished the paint in the Master Bath. It's great to have that DONE. DeRell was a wonderful help both last night & Tues night with the hard to paint spots (i am only 5 foot!!!) so that book must be rubbing off on him!

I couldn't get to bed - i kept thinking about all the things left to do, so sat and wrote out a list of what needed to be done in each room by Friday am. The list took up a whole sheet of paper, multiple columns. Too many "partially finished" items to mention, plus i have to clean. Oh, and Greys Anatomy is on tonite. Thank you DVR - but i am sure i'll be up till 2am again (watching it after i am all done with the other stuff =) hehehehe)

Anyhow another great evening of progress. Looking forward to "completion" of some items and a few checks in the mail hopefully from clients so we can buy groceries for company. Not too big of a request. Have a great day everyone! I'm gonna steal DeRell's camera and try to take some photos, this no camera thing has me batty!

10.21.2008 Tuesday Updates

Well yesterday (Tuesday) went pretty well. The kids behaved/pitched in and we are all doing good at keeping the house picked up & everyone seems to be cleaning up after themselves! Baby steps but it seems like LEAPS! Yay!

We had family dinner last night, and prayed about the events that happened at Danielle's school (it was broken into and all the jogathon money as well as the church offerings from the weekend were stolen). It's hard on children who work so hard to raise money to have it stolen. We talked alot about it and asked that God change the hearts of the very bad people who did this.

DeRell and I managed to get the bathroom Primer up last night for the main bath after the kids went to bed. SO it was a late night, and we slept in late in the morning bcuz of it! Wednesday's chore is to buy the paint for the ceiling/trim as well as the new paint color. I am hoping to have it all painted while the kids are at Awana's tonite.

No bible study for me bcuz of the viewing for Nelda. As many know she passed extremely fast from her Cancer that she just found out about at the begininning of this month. My view is that she was such a loving and humble servant that God spared her the agony and brought her home quickly. She was loved by so many in the entire community-i don't think there is even one church that didn't know who she was and had her in their prayers! She served out her days as a missionary for the Lord - teaching so many and sharing God's love at so many churches and events. She will be truly missed on Earth, but is now in the place we all long to be. I have such a different mindset than so many others i know who dwell in sadness when someone dies. I can't help but smile at the blessing of the believers who pass on... the ones that are singing with the angels and in the presence of our Creator. When we know this as Truth, how can we be sad?? Someday it will be me, or a family member and I just want everyone to have peace. Peace that we are finally HOME when we leave this Earth. Don't cry. SMILE.