Happy Halloween!

We're done trick-or-treating for another year. The girls are shoveling the candy in as I type. I'm trying to decide if we should just let them eat it all right now and put them to bed when the sugar coma hits, or make them save some candy for the rest of the year.

Princess went as a doctor and Flower was an elephant. Flower has been telling everyone we've seen (including strangers on the street) for the past week "I a erwa-phant".



We carved pumpkins last night. Dear Husband pulled a fist full of pumpkin guts out and moved his hand towards Princess who immediately shrieked and began to cry. DH didn't meant to freak her out so he told her it was just a vegetable. Flower looked at her and said "Yeah, no cry Princess, it just a vegetable!"

Finally, we had a photo session outside in the wind today so I thought I'd post a couple pictures.




Oh yeah, don't forget to set your clocks back an hour tonight....unless your Auntie C!

Sometimes He Has a One Track Mind

Dear Husband got home from his hunting trip last night. He got a nice 6x6 bull and he is very proud of it. We had to take a pickup to town this morning so the girls and I followed DH to town so he could drop off the pickup.

DH then did the morning drop off circuit in reverse. My office, Princess's school, Flower to daycare. Since I didn't have a vehicle at work DH had to pick up Princess after school and take her to daycare. I called him to make sure he didn't get sidetracked. He said he was on his way so I asked him how the drop off went this morning. He began telling me it went fine and they didn't care about the extra meat, at which point I went, huh? Then he realized we were talking about different drop offs....I was asking about the girls and he was talking about his elk.

Sometimes I forgot his world revolves around hunting this time of year :)

Our Annual Tradition

Today is opening day for big game rifle season. Dear Husband embarked on his annual week long hunting trip with Papa, Uncle B, and a family friend. It’s a small crew this year. Papa has been taking this trip for years. I’m not sure of the exact number of years, but I think it’s pushing 30.

The guys look forward to their trip every year. I’ve never minded a week to myself but apparently Flower is opposed to DH going hunting. This is the second year in a row she has had a little intestinal bug when DH was hunting. In case you forgot, go read this.

Princess missed her daddy Friday night at bedtime but she seems to have moved on. She hasn’t given me any good one-liners like she did last year. http://pinkis4girls.blogspot.com/2008/11/daddy-went-hunting.html

So rather than going to church this morning we’re watching cartoons and drawing pictures. Flower’s tummy seems to be better this morning but with all the junk going around right now I thought we should probably stay home rather than pass our bug around the nursery at church.

Speaking of all the stuff going around right now, I’m not sure what to think about the flu pandemic. We all got our seasonal flu shots. Flower is in the first group for the H1N1 vaccine but we missed the clinic last week because of bad information on the health department website and hot line. I’ve never visited our health department website until this year. So far I’m not impressed.

Last week I was a little concerned about the flu virus. I am trying not to buy in to the media frenzy even though 3 teachers at Princess’s school have the swine flu and four of her classmates were absent all week. We are trying to be vigilant about washing our hands, coughing in our elbows and following the other preventative measures.

Then I sit down with my coffee and the paper yesterday morning and see this. 6-year-old died from H1N1 A perfectly healthy child, no underlying medical conditions. I know the statistics, the flu (any strain) is serious and healthy people die from it every year. But it is just not fair. My thoughts and prayers are with the family who lost their son.

Breakfast Chitchat

Princess is having her first fire drill at school next week. Her teacher asked us to talked to her about what to do if there is a fire in our house. We've discussed it before. We have a meeting spot across the street. Princess seems to know what to do.

At breakfast this morning Princess explain to Flower what to do if there is a fire at night. She told Flower if the fire was outside her bedroom door they would keep the door shut, open the window, and yell for help while they pushed the screen out and crawled out on to the roof. Then they would wait for someone to help them down from the roof.

Flower listened intently and then looked at Princess and said in her most serious voice, "OK, I can do that." I think she was serious (for a change), but you never know with that little joker.

A Co-Worker Told Me This Today....

....regarding an IT issue.

Turns out the underlying problem is that it is a computer and people are trying to make it do something logical - at least to them. Not necessarily to the computer. Kind of like herding cats - it is theoretically possible, but not really worth trying to do.

This is one of those classic "tech" problems that can be analyzed according to the "syllable test":

cus-tom-i-za-tion = 5 syllables = bad
de-fault = 2 syllables = good

Nuff said.

Status Report

It has been so long since I posted I almost forgot my password. Not a good sign. So you are probably wondering what we have been doing and why I have not let you in on it.

Truth is, we have been staying home, laying low, and it has been lovely.

The Princess Birthday Weekend Bash took a lot out of us. We spent the following week recovering. I did not clean anything because I was just plain tired of cleaning. According to Dear Husband I went a bit overboard trying to keep the house in order while we had guests and he is probably right. It is a bad habit I need to work on.

Last weekend started Thursday when I picked Princess up from school. She had a tummy ache and with all the bugs going around I wasn't sure if she was sick or not. We headed home for the afternoon and after a long nap she was better. Friday evening we attended a fund raiser at school. The dinner was awesome (roast pig, twice baked potatoes, pineapple upside-down cake) and we bid on a few items at the silent auction. There were so many items to bid on it was a little overwhelming but I think the fund raiser was successful and we enjoyed the evening.

Saturday we ran errands and had a movie night. Sunday we went to church. Princess had school Monday but DH and I were off so Flower and I stayed home and DH went fishing. The weather has been cold lately so I am going in to winter mode; staying home and cooking meals in the crock pot.

This week flew by. The weather is back to normal fall temperatures. DH has hunting on the brain. I am waiting for a load of laundry to dry so I can fold it and through it in a bag for the weekend. After lunch we are headed north to R-town for the weekend. We haven't been up in months and DH has an antelope tag which must be filled.

That's it. Pretty boring, I know. If DH has a successful hunt this weekend maybe I'll post a photo of his antelope and see if I can get some nasty comments from some animal right activists:)

Flower’s Bed

Flower has spent five nights in her “new” bed and hasn't rolled out yet. This morning around 1:30 AM she did start crying. I woke Dear Husband to go check on her. I thought she had finally fallen out of her bed.

Turns out she hit her head on the aquarium instead. The aquarium I bought for Princess when she was an infant and wouldn’t sleep. The aquarium which has not worked for almost a year because the batteries are dead. The aquarium which we will take off and box up for future nieces and nephews tonight.

Flower

Last weekend we decided to convert Flower’s crib into a daybed. Actually, convert probably isn’t the correct word. We didn’t bother to purchase the guardrail for the bed; we just put pillows on the floor so when she rolls out of bed her landing will be cushioned.

We have been talking about moving Flower to a regular bed for some time now. Flower will be three this spring and Auntie A will need the crib….she’ll need two cribs actually, but that’s her problem :)

I have been reluctant to give Flower the freedom to get out of bed at night, fearful of what she might get into before I hear her. Flower always needs something during the night. A drink of water, a different blanket, woof-woof, a Kleenex…you name it, she will think of it. My personal favorite was a couple weeks ago when she called for me to come in her room around 4:30 AM. Dear Husband was just getting up so he went in to check on her. A moment later he returns to our bedroom and tells me Flower wanted us to know she bumped her head and she’s ok. Thanks for the update kiddo.

Saturday night DH took Flower upstairs to start her bedtime routine. She hasn’t been allowing DH to get her ready for bed lately so he was trying to make her happy. All of the sudden I hear squealing and Flower is running around upstairs screaming about a big girl bed. I’m surprised she didn’t need a new pull-up after the excitement was over.

It has been two nights and Flower has not gotten out of bed, at night anyway. She did try to get up from her nap after about ten minutes yesterday. As I’m writing this I just realized that the light was on in her room this morning and the blanket I covered her up with last night was hanging on the end of her bed so she must have gotten up during the night. If she came out of her bedroom I didn’t hear her. Now I’m wondering what else she was up to last night. I think I’ll have Keilie-dog sleep outside Flower’s door tonight.