check writing etiquette

Laura posted a similar pet peeve on her blog awhile back and I just want to reiterate, that writing checks in public is very ANNOYING!! Today at the grocery store -- busy as all get out, mind you-- I have a cart of groceries and two children, one in which I am physically wrestling to keep in check while enduring high pitched deafening screams in my ear, and I pull into the checkout behind a lady whose completing her payment and another lady whose only item is one small bottle of diet coke. I picked the short line, right?! Wrong! The lady totally had to write a check for her dang bottle of diet coke!! Hello, the time it takes to write the check, dig the ID out of the wallet, let the cashier check the ID and then write more stuff on the check, double check to make sure all the info is correct, put the check through, give the lady her cash back and receipt, and then the lady had to stuff the change into her wallet and then into her purse, and get the bottle of soda and the receipt before finally moving on out of the checkout lane. It was all I could do to avoid eye contact with her so as not to give the look of death as she casually glanced guiltily in my direction. People, please do not write checks in public -- especially when there's a million people and screaming children behind you in line!!

basketball-a-palooza

The boys each have a basketball game during the week, plus practice on Saturdays. This past week we also found out that Jared is old enough to play "church ball" and so he had another game on Saturday. Somewhere over the week or weekend (its all a blur now) we watched a Jazz game on TV. On Friday night we were able to get tickets to the BYU game for $1 each, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to head to Provo for the game. One good part about all of this basketball-a-palooza is that every game played or watched went into the win column. And another good thing about it was that we lucked out and bumped into the Jensen cousins at the game as well as Jack & Lindsay -- we haven't seen any of them for quite awhile! Many thanks to the Jensens for giving the boys the BYU "swatters" as a game souvenir!

so tired of...

1. things breaking/having to be fixed
2. hearing kids (especially one) complain about every little thing
3. cooking meals

test question

The first term of school is over for the boys and they each brought home fabulous report cards! This definitely makes for happy parents. Ryan recently brought home a health quiz that he got 100% on. He missed one question, but got the bonus question correct, so he still got 100%. Here's the question he missed:

T/F An appropriate way to reduce stress is to hit your little brother.

Um, yeah... he circled True! I just can't stop laughing (privately of course)! This is classic Ryan. I definitely pointed out that question to him and reminded him that he should NEVER hit his little brother or anyone else. But I also heartily congratulated him on getting the bonus question correct and getting a super-duper-fabulous grade on his quiz.

'coon huntin'

We had a family phone call with my family on Sunday night. My parents shared their adventure of the week -- a raccoon hunt. My parents like to have cats around the home/farm to keep control of mice. To keep the cats around, my dad likes to supplement their mice feasts with a little cat food, which he puts out on the carport for them. For awhile now, they have been aware that the cat food has been getting eaten by a raccoon(s). Well, Dad had had enough of feeding raccoons and brought the shotgun into the house, so he'd be ready next time he caught the raccoons feasting on the cat food in the carport. About 10 pm one night last week, my parents heard some noises on the carport and flipped on the light to check it out. Sitting there eating the cat food were FOUR adult raccoons!! Dad grabbed the shotgun, Mom grabbed the flashlight. They opened the door and scared the raccoons out of the carport. My parents followed in hot pursuit. Dad shot one by the tree (Dad didn't say which tree, and there are many to choose from) and found another one up IN the tree and shot it. By then the other two were nowhere to be found, so Mom & Dad went back inside the house. A little bit later they heard the rustling again on the carport and the two remaining raccoons were back to finish off their evening meal. Mom & Dad headed out again with the flashlight and shotgun and Dad managed to mortally wound one raccoon as it raced screaming off into the darkness. The other one got away, but not for long. Dad set a trap out by the sheds and back fence and in the morning he had a huge raccoon caught in the trap. Even though Dad offered a few people the opportunity to make some nice coonskin caps with a long tail, no one took him up on the offer and so he disposed of them somewhere. Mom & Dad thought they had taken care of all those darn raccoons, but alas, there were more raccoon noises on Sunday night. Maybe Dad will have another coon tale (tail) to tell about soon!!

student of the week

The fish have nothing to do with being student of the week, it's just a good picture of Jared. Way to go, kiddo!

new friend

Jacob played with a new friend today. Yay!

tooth #5

Matthew's fifth tooth finally broke through a couple days ago! HOORAY! So far, he doesn't usually get grumpy or sick when teething, but it seems his teeth are just taking a very long time to come in.

In other teeth news, Jared got his expander taken out on Monday and will get a permanent retainer placed on his upper teeth next week. Next up -- pulling teeth. Poor kid!

new chapter in the history books

Today the nation elected a new president -- Barak Obama. He is the first African-American to become President of the United States. He's got some serious national issues facing him as he takes office in January 2009. On some of these issues, I support his ideas. On other issues, I worry because I don't agree with him. It should be interesting to see what unfolds in the coming four years.

halloween

I was saving the best picture, for last in this post, but accidently deleted it at the last second. So, why save the best for last? Here it is: Matthew loved the suckers he got trick-or-treating -- so much so, that he kept stealing suckers from his brothers loot bags. Gotta love his sticky grin!

I'm probably the last person on earth to post Halloween picts, but here goes! As I was loading the pictures, I realized that I didn't take any pictures of my older boys dressed up, probably because their enthusiasm for dressing up was zilch -- they're only interested in the candy. However, we did get a shot with the cousins at G&G's. Here's Ryan with Matthew (spiderman), Ethan, Katie (pumpkin), Rachel, Jared, and Jacob (clone trooper). Jared & Ryan are whatever you can imagine a black caped person could be -- I think they were going for some sort of grim reaper look. Rachel's butterfly costume was so very cute with a twinkling light-up skirt. Oh, the things you miss out on when you don't have girls!

Here's Jacob & Matthew all ready to head out the door to trick-or-treat!

Ryan and Jared took off with a group of friends and trick-or-treated for a good long time. Ryan was definitely the loot winner for the evening! Here's looking at what we think is 6 pounds of candy -- yes, I said SIX POUNDS!

Here's Jared's loot after throwing out things he doesn't like, doing a little trading with Ryan, and separating the goods into similar stacks.

Here's Jacob's loot for the evening.

Here's my little Matthew Spiderman, all ready for his first trick-or-treat adventure!

Here he is checking out his candy -- Mark took him out just on our street.

His favorite candy was the suckers.

The boys have been pretty good so far about eating their candy in moderation. They are also having a wonderful time trading candy with their friends or trading candy for basketball cards and other wonderful treasures.