Jane's Quilt on the Wall

My mom wanted me to post a picture of the quilt Jane made for me, hanging on the wall. Because I wanted to hang it on the wall over the stairs, we had to go find a 12 foot long board in the construction mess behind our house, balance one side on a 6 foot ladder and the other side on the stairs so I could walk out on it in order to reach high enough to hang the quilt on the wall. (Landon was my coach.) I wish I had a picture of that scary event. Reminds me of whenever Landon is doing electrical work and he has me touch the wiring to see if the electricity is really off or not.

Carving Pumpkins

Saturday afternoon we had a special family activity picking out pumpkins for the girls...at Broulims. Tonight we carved them. Landon had class and had to leave at 5:30pm, so he helped Emma get started on her pumpkin, while I helped Lauren later after she came home from playing outside. They carved one side with a fancy pattern, and the other side the "old school" way, like a jack-o-lantern. Good times.

Choosing the perfect pumpkin in the Broulims parking lot/pumpkin patch.

Emma's ghost pattern. She did most of the work on this one.

Lauren did most of her pumpkin carving too. She did a vampire pattern.

Really heavy pumpkins, all carved up.

Princess Days

The Hair Academy had "Princess Days" on Saturday. That means they'll do an updo, makeup and fingernails for $9. So I took Emma and Lauren to "get their princess on" while I had a pedicure. Here are the before and after shots:

Kind of dark, but you get the idea.

Loud Mouth Cat

This cat was outside crying really loudly last night, so we fed it 2 raw eggs and gave it some water. It was really happy. That's about as close as we're going to get to having our own animal for quite a while.

Out of Control Neighbors

Our neighbors went a little overboard on their decorating for Halloween. We're looking forward to seeing their Christmas decor.

Halloween Carnival

Kennedy had their annual Halloween Carnival/Fundraiser Friday night. We went and had a great time. Emma and her friend Katrina stuck together and did their own thing while Lauren stayed with Mom and Dad. Emma went through the haunted "Spook Alley" about 4-5 times, but Lauren didn't even want to get near that end of the building. It's amazing how much they change in 2 years.This is Emma in her "Sacajawea" costume. I made it, but didn't add the beaded trim. That would have really made it look good, but also added about $15 more to the whole thing.

Jane made this "Cheetah" costume for Ashley last year (I think). Lauren lucked out and got to borrow it this year.

This is Landon, Lauren, Emma and her friend Katrina eating dinner at the carnival. It cost us $9 to feed 5 of us hot dogs, chips and drinks.

Lauren throwing velcro balls at some ghosts.

Lauren getting her face painted (black nose and some whiskers to match her costume).

Lauren bowling with a gigantic bowling ball. She got a strike.

Back to Work

I'll be working in the BYU-Idaho Housing office for the next 12 weeks beginning tomorrow! The girl who I'm covering for, is scheduled to be induced tomorrow morning. The timing is great, since we're ridiculously poor right now, but I'll certainly miss my life of leisure.

Happy Birthday to Me...and Judge Judy!!!!

I found out that not only is October 21st, my birthday, but it is also my favorite TV judge's birthday too! Judge Judy's! Anyone who knows how much I love Judge Judy will be as thrilled as I am to learn that piece of information.

This morning my girls greeted me with lots of love and Happy Birthday wishes, as well as some lovely slippers, a 12-pack of new combs, a People magazine and $20 for a pedicure. When I saw the slippers, I said, "Oh, these kind of look like old lady slippers!" The girls beamed and seemed genuinely happy that I noticed this fact, because they told me that Nanny has a pair exactly like them! (For those who don't know, Nanny is my 87 year old grandma who we stayed with this summer when we visited Vancouver.) The 12-pack of combs is meant to replace my 20 year old comb that is bent and missing teeth. I explained to the girls that the next time I'll need a comb is when I turn 57 and they are 27 and 29 years old. They loved that.

To celebrate my birthday, I brought Landon lunch from Wendy's (the buffalo chicken sandwich is awesome!) so we could eat together. As a family, we went to "Da Pineapple Grill" here in Rexburg for dinner, then came home to eat some cheesecake (my first attempt at a real cheesecake). It was a nice day and I'm happy that it's over now.

Old lady slippers

I made this Cheesecake Factory Oreo Cheesecake from a recipe in Jane's sister's collection of recipes. It was really good! We're freezing half of it for Landon's birthday next Saturday.

Old comb, new comb

Mom and girls

Super Saturday

We had Super Saturday last weekend, and this is what I came home with. The words on the plate are vinyl letters. The blocks came just cut out and raw, so I sanded, painted, stained and stenciled the letters on them. It concerns Landon that the pumpkin doesn't have a letter A on it, so if anyone else is concerned, I think shape of the pumpkin is meant to suggest an A.

I made one more project, but many of you may receive it as a Christmas present, so I'm going to keep it a surprise!

School Pictures

Emma and Lauren had their school pictures taken last month and here they are! Emma Jayne, 4th Grade
Lauren Jean, 2nd Grade

Erin's New Haircut

I got a haircut yesterday. I went to The Hair Academy, which is a Paul Mitchell school. They have their own separate shampoo room with dimmed lights, relaxing music and aromatics. The hair washing process takes like 20 minutes, because they massage your scalp. Because they're students, the whole experience took 2 hours, but it only cost me $8 plus a tip. I think it looks drastically different, but for some reason my boyfriend pretended not to notice the fact that I had 6 inches of hair cut off. When I brought it to his attention he asked why I did it. I said, "so you don't like it?" He said, "I'm just surprised, that's all." This is code in our relationship for, "I'm upset" or "I'm mad" or "You're an idiot."

For example: "Are you mad I spent so much at Walmart today?"

Response: "I'm just surprised, that's all."

Example: "Are you upset I made a mess in the kitchen and didn't clean it up?"

Response: "I'm just surprised, that's all."

Example: "Are you upset I teased the girls so much they're both hysterically crying in their rooms right now?"

Response: "I'm just surprised, that's all."

So, evidently Landon isn't fond of my haircut. Some of you may be familiar with Landon's lack of tact when it comes to fashion feedback. (Fat girls shouldn't wear sweaters, etc.)(No, I don't own any sweaters.) I'd like to take a poll. Vote for the hair before or the hair after. I can't see who voted for which option, so don't worry about hurting my feelings.

By the way, I brought a picture to the salon so they could use it for a guide when doing my hair (they got the layers right, but I have curly hair, so it looks pretty different): This is the "before" hairstyle:

This is the "after" hairstyle:

Trip to Utah Slideshow

Better late than never. Here is the slideshow of our fun trip to Utah.

(don't forget to pause the music at the bottom of the page to hear the music with the slideshow)

Yummy Lifesavers

As you know, Landon has been losing weight since about July. One great benefit of this weight loss, is that he can now fit into his dad's clothes which he took home after the funeral. Yesterday at church, he was wearing a navy blue suit coat that belonged to Pa. During sacrament meeting he passed out cherry Lifesavers to our kids, and 4 other kids down the row. As they were all happily sucking on the Lifesavers, I asked Landon where he got the Lifesavers. He whispered with a big smile, "I found them in my pocket. They were Pa's!" We laughed pretty hard.

Rexburg's First Snow

We got a little bit of snow and a whole lot of wind and freezing temperatures this weekend. We're expecting mid 60's by the end of the week, so pretty typical October weather for Rexburg. (This is the view from our kitchen window looking west, over the construction of our unfinished townhomes, toward the custom homes of the Willowbrook neighborhood. Those homes keep us motivated to get Landon that elusive Masters degree so we can upgrade one day.)

Canning Salsa and Plum Jam/Syrup

We spent Friday and Saturday canning green tomato salsa, red salsa and plum jam that didn't set up so now it's plum syrup. Everything turned out incredibly tasty.

If it helps us get done faster, we allow our young children to handle knives.

Everything is a family project in this house.

This is the jam that never was. As syrup, it's so good that we moan when we eat it.

Sunday morning pancakes with plum syrup.

We used a jar of this green tomato salsa in taco soup Saturday night, and it was so good!

The red salsa turned out very yummy, but is too mild for us. It's a safe gift though.

Gifts from Jane

Sister Kimball and Sister Ingram, Fall 1993, Plzen, Czech Republic.

Jane Luke and I met in 1993 when I was her first companion in the mission field. We raised hell together as missionaries and have stayed close friends ever since. She has twin girls, Jessica and Samantha, who will be 11 in December, Ashley who is 7, and Rhett who is 5. Whenever we go to Utah we stay a night or two with the Lukes. The kids love these get togethers and consider each other best friends or maybe cousins. Landon and I benefit from the Lukes' hospitality and generosity every time we stay with them. Both John and Jane are amazing cooks and Jane is especially gifted in all things domestic. Last week's visit brought a diabetic coma inducing breakfast of pecan praline french toast, a beautiful quilt and the coolest little home decor item I've seen. It's called punch needle embroidery and I'm so excited to learn how to do it.

These are pictures of the kids at the beginning of 2008.

This is my Christmas present! She had her mom use her computerized quilting machine to quilt it. I am planning to hang it on the wall going up the stairs. It's beautiful and in the colors I love.
This is my birthday present! It is called punch needle embroidery. I love it.
Up close picture of the punch needle embroidery. It's like little loops.