HP Books

Last month I finished reading the last Harry Potter book to my older kids. I bought the set of books for Christmas 2010 and we started reading right after. We read slowly, sometimes only a half of a chapter at night, sometimes a full chapter, and we took breaks between each book so it took us almost two years to read them all. Two years! Thinking about these characters for two years means now that we're done reading, we miss them. The only cure will be to go to Harry Potter World in Florida. Ha!  We'll probably never be able to go there but it would sure be fun.

Where are you number 5?
 

It was SO much fun sharing the story with my kids and rereading it for myself. I had forgotten a lot of parts.

Halloween

Elli has loved animals her whole life and always has known crazy facts about them since she could talk. She has gone through a dog phase, a horse phase, a cheetah/leopard phase, but lately her favorite are wolves. So for Halloween, naturally she wanted to be a wolf. I found some faux fur online so I could make her costume. It would be an easy beginner project, right? I ordered the fur a month before so I would have enough time to make it. I found a pattern online and a few youtube videos and I was ready. I cut out my pattern, two of the fur and two of my liner fabric. I laid them all together: liner, the two fur pieces with the fur sides together, and another liner piece. I sewed all around the 4 pieces making sure to leave a spot open so I could turn it right side out- that's what a good sewer does after all. Well, as it turns out, I am not a good sewer. I did leave a spot to turn it right side out, but I sewed up the spot for the face. My brain is not good at all that inside out thinking. So far I had made a nicely lined pillow.

Furry pillow

I was so frustrated, I kept putting off the fixing of it until Halloween got closer and closer. Finally after lots of unpicking (that took longer than the actual sewing) I was able to finish her hat and make her a vest and a tail, and I finished the night before Halloween. Hallow's Eve Eve. I like to do things at the last minute I guess.

Ben as a Grim Reaper and Elli as a wolf.

 Halloween was a gorgeous day with perfect temps.

 

Addie as a witch

Will as Buzz Lightyear



Isn't this the perfect Halloween picture with all these glowing eyes? Of course, Addie wore her pink cowboy boots with her witch costume. She was adamant about it and there was no talking her out of it. 

We met up with my sister Sinika and her boys to go trick or treating. I have lived in the same neighborhood as my sister for 7 years and we have never been trick or treating with our kids together. It was super duper fun.

Day 10 of "12 Days of Fun"

My kids have had their cousins over for 10 days now while their parents are on an amazing trip to Ireland and England. They are loving it! Day 1 was a little un-fun for me. Out of the 7 kids there was a pee incident, a poop incident, a throw-up incident and 3 escaped crickets from the toad food. In the first 12 hours! I was so scared for what would come the rest of the time. But Day 2 and on have been much better. Ben has been in heaven! Elliott and Ollie are his best friends ever and to have them sleep over for almost two weeks has been so much fun for him.

Listening to my 6 year old nephew read in Chinese is just about the cutest thing in the world!

Playing on a little bridge at the park. Let's call it 'Little Bridge'.

 Lincoln has called me 'Mom' several times now.

And Will now calls me Linds. 

That's a lot of kids!

I would watch these cute boys again and again, they're such good kids. I'm glad my sister and her husband could get away for a bit.

The time Roland Orzabal winked at me.

Also known as my first concert.

I'm sure you all know who Roland Orzabal is so don't worry, I won't get into explaining that he is the lead singer of Tears For Fears and all that.

The year was 1993. There I was. 16 years old. My older brother Eric and I drove up to the county fair grounds for an epic concert. Oh great, now it sounds like they played at the fair. This wasn't during fair time. It just happened to be in a building on the empty fair grounds. We drove up early so we could get a good spot since it was general admission. Oh and by the way, we drove up in a camper. Why you ask? Well, did I mention I was 16? Yes, I did. I had recently wrecked our car after leaving a high school football game. I ran into someone who then ran into the car in front of them. Pretty much right out of the parking lot. Oops. So the only transportation available (besides our parents' cars) was a light blue 1960s truck with a camper attached to the back. Can you picture it? We felt real cool. But at least we had some pork and beans available should the need have arisen.

Not knowing what to expect we ended up being super early so there were only a few people in line in front of us. So when the doors opened, we ended up in the front row. Roland was wearing a suede vest with no shirt underneath. Haha! (Ew. Sweaty suede.)  They played some old stuff and some new stuff. We knew the old stuff and we knew the new stuff. It was great. I was singing along to one of his newest songs and he looked down at me and smiled and winked. I thought for sure that no one would believe me, but afterward, Eric said he saw it too. He couldn't have possibly been winking at any of the other thousands of people there. It was just for me. Maybe it was the passion in my face as I sang along that just grabbed his attention. I'm pretty sure I always sing passionately when I'm singing in front of a famous singer.

You better believe I still have that ticket stub! Lost somewhere in my stuff. But lost somewhere in my stuff is a pretty important place according to me. Now someday I'll be able to not just tell someone, but show someone. Look where I was on such and such day. Here. And they will  not be able to dispute it. The wink they might be able to dispute though. If only I had had my big clunky film camera there that night...

I'm a biker.

For the first time in my adult life, at the age of 35, I am the owner of a bike. A real bike with gears and everything. And guess what? I didn't forget how to ride one, just like they always say. It's a lot more fun than running. I like to see something in the distance and then get there quick. Running frustrates me for that reason. It's not my fault I run so slow! It's running's fault. But biking... oh, biking. Maybe it doesn't work as many muscles as running but still. I like my bike.

Isn't it a beaut? (I've never said that word in my life!) (Okay, I lied. I have said that word before.) Please don't tell me if it's a crappy brand though. Cause I paid a lot of money for it and I just want to keep thinking that it's biking's best kept secret brand. Plus I'm not racing it or anything. All I really want it for is to ride around and watch the sun set and sometimes pull my kids around.

Addie and Will trailing along.

If they would just stop making such cute band aids...

I think we need to get a few more boxes and THEN we will have enough.

Do you have a favorite HGTV show?

 I do. Well, I have three.

1. Curb Appeal: The Block - I guess I would like the regular Curb Appeal too but I just never catch it being on. They make over the front of a person's house and their front yard.

2. Rental Property - They redo the basement so it can be rented out. It usually turns out nicer than the main living space.

3. Property Brothers - People buy a fixer upper house and redo almost the whole house. I would love it if someone made over a house for me.

It seems like a lot of HGTV shows are made in Canada. I'm pretty sure # 2 and 3 are. They sound Canad-ish. Also it seems like a lot of children's shows are made in Canada. Speaking of Canadian made kid shows, I've always thought that Brother Bear on the PBS Berenstain Bears sounded like Michael Cera. I just looked it up on Wikipedia and I am right! Cause we all know Wikipedia is always right. I could just hear the Michael Cera voice and giggle.  Speaking of Canadians, I just love that guy.

Big drink in a little cup

The things you find on your camera phone when you have a 4 year old

A few weeks ago, I did the coolest thing ever. I was asked to participate in a survey. Doesn't sound too cool yet does it? But the survey was about music. Light rock music. Yes. We listened to about 600 bits of songs and if we liked the song, we turned the dial up to 100. If we didn't like the song we turned it to 1. And any other songs - whatever we felt like rating them.

Yes, play more Mr. Mister, Starship and Heart.

No, never play Rod Stewart or Matchbox 20 ever, ever again.

And keep playing all the Phil Collins and Sarah McLachlan that you have always played.

You're welcome, Utah.

Some people got tired of listening to the music after a while. But not me. I could have gone even longer.

I think I made a big impact. Hopefully the older lady next to me wasn't giving back the exact opposite feedback that I was.

Was it worth it? Yes. Mostly because they payed me $65.
But secondly, it was just fun.

Red hair

When I was a kid, I always wanted red hair. I thought Anne Shirley was crazy to want to change her hair color. And still now as an adult, I've wondered what it would be like to have red hair. So I had to do it. At least once in my life. Otherwise I would never have known. A week and a half ago, I went for it!

Before hair: light blonde on the bottom, dark blonde at the roots- not on purpose. Addie with chocolate face.

After hair: RED!

It has taken some getting used to. Okay, so I'm still not used to it. Because I feel like I don't see it very often. When I'm not looking in a mirror, I forget. Every once in a while, out of the corner of my eye I'll see red and I'm shocked.

 It is fun to have a change though. I've never been any other color except blond(ish). So I'm glad I did it.

Baby Will

Guess what? My little baby Will isn't so little anymore. Okay, he's still little and he's still a baby, but he's just doing bigger things. Like trying to talk and stuff.

Today he sat into the toy box and got stuck and out of the corner of my mind I heard,
"Mama! Hep! Mama! Tuck!

Later, he came crying to me with his hand stuck in this pin toy. Super stuck. Good thing it was already slightly broken so it had some give when he finally yanked it out. (I was trying to remove it gently but he wanted it out faster.) I put the toy back together. Very shoddily though, so I don't think it'll last too much longer. I just can't bring myself to throw away all those perfectly straight pins! (I'm a hoarder.) 

After that, he was climbing onto the toilet lid with his favorite blanket in both hands and lost his grip and fell between the toilet and the wall and got stuck. This was all before lunch! He definitely needs to be able to say the word "stuck" these days.

I just realized a lot of these pictures are of him eating. They are all different days. I guess I must think he's irresistibly cute when he's eating. I also have lots of pictures of him watching TV. He's really cute doing that too. 

One of his favorite pastimes is putting his favorite blanky on his head and walking around. Sometimes he runs into things, sometimes he barely misses. He's a risk taker I tell you!

Do cats usually sleep on pillows?

Well, mine does. I'm not sure if I'm bragging here or if I should be sad about it. I guess I should be more clear: he sleeps on MY pillow. Sometimes I push him away but other times I just let him stay in the hopes that he doesn't go and snuggle/wake up anyone else in the house.

More skiing pics and snow tasting and finally giving up and sitting in the car

Elli

Elli is 10 1/2 years old and in 5th grade. We found out on February 16 that she has Type 1 Diabetes.
Boooooo to diabetes.
(Sorry diabetes but it's true.)
Type 1 is where your body attacks your own pancreas and stops it from making insulin. So now we have to inject insulin before every meal.

Here she was in the hospital. She thought she was pretty special to get to stay up late and watch movies, skip school and order any food item from the menu. Oh and she got lots of stuffed animals while she was there too. She has a weakness for any type of stuffed anything.

A few days later we went skiing in the park. My mom has a bunch of cross country skis straight from Finland. Doesn't she look like a little Finnish girl? I really wanted her to have a Finnish name when she was born. I chose the spelling of her name from a list of Finnish names. 

I did a few rounds too. It's such a great workout!

Elli's doing pretty good with all the pokes and helping to figure out what she's going to eat. She's a kova evästeen (tough cookie). I'm not sure if that idiom translates right into Finnish. My relatives are going to be like: why is she calling her daughter an inedible dessert?