Pictures and Shoulder Pads

We got Keven's 3rd grade school picture back the other day and I am pleased with how it turned out. His hair was cut WAY TOO short right before school and I feared it would look terrible. He took a great picture and has a wonderful smile. They went with a different company this year and I'm not real pleased with them. I wish they would've stayed with LifeTouch instead of this local company. The prices were more expensive and the quality is lower than LifeTouch. Also, he didn't get to pick a color for his background nor a pose this year. He was pretty bummed about that. The glare is because I took a picture of his picture! hahahaha!


On another note, my mom is very funny sometimes. She comes up with her own creative ideas and just goes with them. Keven has a tendency to put holes in the left knee of ALL his pants! It drives me nuts because they still fit him! We purchased Nightmare Before Christmas jeans last year (big on purpose) and he decided to get a hole in them and pull and pull and pull at that hole until it was huge! He did this some months back. I pulled them out and asked my mom if she could fix it. She said she had a patch, so I was OK with that. Well, apparently she didn't have a patch and this is what she decided to do:

Yes, you are correct if you guessed that it's a SHOULDER PAD!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! I just about died when I saw that. It's still padded and all. So, these are now play pants because I would never send my son to school or in public with a giant shoulder pad on his pants! Oh, how I love my mom and I appreciate all that she does for us and how willing she is to help, but next time, I'll just bring some patches!

It's Halloween and I'll post pics later tonight or tomorrow of our trick-or-treating adventures this evening. We're praying that it stops raining!!

Pumpkins and Decorations!

So, tonight, we carved some of our pumpkins. We decided to let Keven not only create his own design, but carve it himself. We have this awesome battery operated thing that holds the little saw, so you don't have to move your hand and get cramps with it! It is pretty cool and makes things look nicer. So, here's Keven's pumpkin:

Next one is mine. On Halloween night, we'll have the guts spilling out of it's mouth to look like he's puking. HAHAHAHAHA!

This is the front of the house. This pic doesn't do it justice. It looks pretty cool when you drive by the house.

Graveyard

Front Porch

PARTY CITY!!

So, we had our 4th Annual Adult Halloween party on Friday evening and it was a blast. Lots of fun and some very creative costumes. I went as a vampiress (even though the $5 teeth I purchased DIDN'T stay on with the putty they provided... a friend of mine had the SAME problem..GRRRRRR) and Ben went as the Grim Reaper. The pic below is blurry, so I'm hoping to get a more clear shot from someone else that had a camera! I'd like a close-up shot because I had these really fun fake eyelashes on.

We played some fun games and some different ones, but laughed all night. Had some interesting conversations and 1/2 my makeup was off from tearing up so many times. Many others had great costumes, but I'll let them share theirs on their own blogs, if they wish. So, now I look forward to next year's party and wonder what the theme will be!

For those that get it.... *cuh-cwah, uhnana*

FOUND THE CAMERA!!

So, this isn't the best shot of the boy, but it's what I could do quickly. (pulled him out of bed.. haha) He looks ticked, but before this he was acting MEGA-goofy and I was telling him to stop!

Shiner

OK, so I've been searching all over my house for my stinkin' camera and CANNOT for the life of me find it. So, I figured I'd better post about Keven, even though I have no pics to post right now.



SO, Keven decided to keep a before Halloween tradition this year. He, once again, has a nice shiner!


Last Thursday, he was in PE at school and they were all running around. Well, apparently he stopped and turned and then WHACK!! Yep, you guessed it... A little girl's head went right onto his eye! So, he went to the office and they put ice on it. They gave me a jingle to let me know what happened and I said if he felt OK to leave him there. It was all swollen and red when I got him and each day it's turned a different color. Today, it's turned into that nasty yellowish bruise color, with a big streak of black color.


What's so funny about this is that he had a shiner at this time last year, same eye. We went to a friend's house for a Halloween party and the kids were swinging a wooden broom handle at a pinata. Candy started falling out and then the kids would grab what had fallen. Well, it hadn't completely busted and it went to the next person. Each kid got 3 swings, then was done. So, the girl swung and hit the pinata and candy flew out (Again, not busting it, but a few pieces came out). Keven felt the need to dive for the candy. While in mid-air dive, she pulled the stick back in full force to swing again and WHACK!! Keven got nailed on the eye. Totally his fault on that one. Here's pics of the one from last year. You can see where it whacked him and that it "cracked" on his brow making his mark look like Anakin's scar from Star Wars.

This is last year's shiner. October 2007

To top it all off, Keven burnt his lip on Friday evening on a bratwurst that he failed to blow on first! SO, when he woke up on Saturday, NASTY COLD SORE!!! Yep, he gets them so easily. So, 1/2 of his bottom lip is a grotesque cold sore. Thank heavens for abreva! Best stuff ever made. Basically, my son looks like he was in a fierce fight. Gotta love him, but I don't know if this shiner tradition is one he should keep.

WE ARE SPLITTING APART!!

OK, now before you all have a heart attack and start calling me about the title, read below..

So, our ward cubscouts has been combined with the 2 other ward cubscouts in our building. One ward has the wolves, another has the bears and the other has webelos. And the cubmaster, assistant cubmaster and committee chair are from each of the 3 wards. WELL, we had noticed that our cubscout group was fairly large and we really felt impressed that we needed to SPLIT APART (that's where the separated part comes in) from the other 2 wards and just do it ourselves. Now, most of you know that wards do not usually combine their scouts, they are self-sustaining.

After many not so kind things kept coming up with the other wards (which I will not go into), the Primary President and I had a nice, long chat with the member of the Bishopric that is over Primary. We expressed our concern for things and told him how confidant we are that we could run the cubscouts, on a ward level, and be completely successful. As of now, the cubscouts have not been as successful as they could be and they are not receiving badges they should be getting.

So, today, that member of the Bishopric gave us the best news ever. He told us that we are splitting apart from the other wards and going to do our OWN ward cubscouts! EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT!!! This issue has been such a source of stress and disappointment for me, not only as the person over the cubscouts in our ward, but as a mother of a cubscout. I am thrilled beyond measure and know that things kept going "sour" for a reason. The Lord has enough faith in us to teach the cubscouts and prepare them to go on into boy scouts. So, I just wanted to share my enthusiasm with you all and how I can't stop smiling when I think about it.

As for my banged up body, I woke up Saturday feeling like I had been in a car wreck. Apparently, when I had to do my quick grabbing of the railing and tightening of muscles to stop my sliding down the stairs, those muscles got jolted. So, now I know what muscles I used to stop my slide. HAHA! I am still sore and the bruise is still there, but I just deal. I feared one of the Primary children would bump me or come to hug me and hit my bruise today, but those that hugged reached up around my waist and I never got bumped! I'd like to say a miracle happened... HAHA! j/k.

OK, so I'm off. I'm up WAY too late and we may head to a pumpkin patch/cornmaze tomorrow since Ben has the day off and Keven has no school. GO COLUMBUS!! The dude needs a little bit of props. Can he get a whoop whoop?

DOWN DOWN DOWN SHE GOES!!

So, this morning was a SERIOULSY cold morning. (34 degrees!!) I was heading out to a Primary Presidency meeting... hands full (binder, purse and posters I made of our last activity)... put my shoes on and headed out the door. I noticed it had been a lil chilly last night. I proceeded to walk down my stairs and WHOOSH!!!

DOWN SHE GOES!

Yup, you got it. I slipped and fell on my hip and side of my leg (all the while trying to protect those posters I spent HOURS on and money on) and continued to slide down 3 stairs. I sat there going "OH MY GOSH.... OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH" all while making sure the posters were OK.

So, I got up and COULDN'T find my keys! They had been flung in the attempt to grab the railing, while not destroying the sacred posters. Did I mention that already? Anyway, so I start looking for the keys, which have now fallen underneath the stairs in the abyss of growth... UGH! I was already running 15 minutes late and now in total pain on my hip and leg. So, I said, "FOR REAL!! WHERE'S MY KEYS??" I guess that was my lil prayer plea. HAHA! Well, I found them (thanks to the disneyland keychain that is bright red) and went on my way.

So, now I'm sitting here with a huge bruise on my leg and feeling like a putz. I scolded Ben for not getting rid of the foliage that has popped through the stairs, thus making it more slippery. I will remember to cautiously approach the stairs from now on.

Thus ends my fabulous adventure, one which I hope to not repeat!

Signing off, big bruise, sore hip and all!

Amanda - 0; Stairs - 1

Lil' bit about us!

Well, I have finally caved into the blog trend. I guess I figured this is a good way to keep family and friends up on what's happening with us.

Keven is in 3rd grade and almost 9 years old! I can't believe it's gone by so quickly. He has many friends and they are all weird. HAHA! I keep telling myself that he's a boy and that's how they are... WEIRD!! He loves going to church and learning about the gospel and about Jesus Christ. He is WAY into Pokemon and I hate it! Seems that all I hear about is the rare ones and which cards he has and wants, etc. There are many times I have to say, "OK! I am done hearing about it!" He still loves Mario & Luigi and is going to be Mario again for Halloween. I told him he didn't have to be that again, but he still wants to! Fine by me! We bought him a mustache this year (painted it on last year), so his overall costume was $5.99 for this year! HURRAY!!

Ben works at one of the naval bases as a contractor. He does help desk (computer stuff) and fixes the computers around the base when people do stupid things. (like putting in batteries backwards and claiming the item doesn't work!!) He likes his job for the most part, but as with most jobs doesn't like how some people are favored. At church, he is a Primary teacher for the 10-11 year olds and is the 11 year old scout leader. He enjoys his callings, for the most part.

I am a Sensaria Natural Bodycare Independant Representative and love doing shows for people. I wish I could do more, but it's hard to break out of your friends circle, so I am hoping to meet new people that want to do a show. If you're interested, the in home spa class only lasts 90 minutes now (that's the show and check-out) and I'd love to help you out! Just shoot me an e-mail or visit my website. We have LOTS of new stuff I'd love to show!

athomsen@mysensaria.com

www.sensaria.com/athomsen

I, too, fully love going to church. I am the Primary 1st Counselor and am so blessed to have this calling. We have over 90 children in our Primary and it can be overwhelming, but to know that I get to be a part of their gospel learning is pretty amazing. I am blessed to be working with such a fantastic Presidency and know that we were called from the Lord. We were put together for a reason and it's definitely manifesting itself to us.

We have been decorating for Halloween and having a great time doing it... well, at least I have! I love the Fall and can't wait for Halloween to get here. The next 3 months are filled with awesome holidays and great family fun. That's about it for our family for now, so I'll just check out and try to make sure to post weekly, if not more often!