Merry Christmas 2008

After the elders left we heard some commotion outside and looked out to find Santa in a fire truck making some early deliveries .. . from the dollar tree.

Christmas Eve we decided to go out for dinner and give the cook a break. I made Brent take these before we left. I usually forget to get any pictures of us in front of the tree Christmas Day.
Marcus is now 9.5 months and goes up and down stairs. . .STEEP stairs!
Caroline got a haircut last week and new jeans for kindergarten that we will just have to roll for a while yet.
7 year old Camille is wearing her nutcracker pin her ballet teacher gave her. She made up this outfit herself.
Nine year old Savannah is glad her bangs are growing out and she's got her groove back.

Kennon, our 10 year old was fancy as usual and we only had to remove a couple accessories so she wouldn't overpower the tree for her picture. My Christmas picture at 32.

Christmas Morning shots follow:

The soft seat is for Caroline. She complains of sore legs when she waits too long for us to come help her in the bathroom. Kindergarten is coming soon so it's time she learned but in the meantime she will be more comfortable. Thanks Richard and Erica for the white elephant. Santa thought it would be perfect under our tree.
Our girls are now walking advertisements for Grandma and Grandpa's Cameo Heights Mansion. We'll have to wear these the next time we get picked up in Seattle in the company "limo".
New scriptures surprised Brent. I think he was hoping for a new motorcycle under the tree. I figured now he is the EQ president he needs a set that has has all the pages. His set from Christmas 1981 just isn't cutting it anymore.

We took our tree down within an hour of opening presents! Why the rush? Little house and it was right in front of where my NEW COMPUTER was going to go!!!!!!

This is coming to you all from my very own Mac. Thank you honey. And the poor guy got scriptures.

We were happy to get hit with snow right before Christmas. By Christmas Day it had warmed to 50 degrees, was raining and our white Christmas was more like a brown Christmas. I snapped this before it got ugly.Brent built the kids this sledding hill in our backyard.

Last Saturday I really needed to go grocery shopping but never got around to it. As we were getting into bed that night I remembered . . . That I had signed up to feed 3 sets of elders for Sunday dinner. Please let church be canceled. By Sunday morning, the bishop had sent out a message that church was not canceled but optional, because of a blizzard that was predicted to start around noon. A couple of the kids were sick with ear infections so we stayed home and Brent went alone because he is the one with responsibilities lately. I sent him with plates of cookies to send home with the elders in lieu of dinner. A blizzard, sick kids, no grocery shopping for several days. . . we were canceling. The kids and I enjoyed couch church in our pj's. Brent interrupted a great morning at 11 a.m. Church was out. He told me later that during the early morning meeting the Bishop suggested they just have Sacrament Meeting and RS/ Priesthood, and forgo the Sunday school hour. Brent was scheduled to teach EQ and had yet to start studying a lesson. He quickly broke in with,"Hey, I have a better idea? How about we just have sacrament meeting?" Bishop shrugged and said OK. So having manipulated the entire buffalo ward he now was ready to also alter my day.
He would be bringing 7 elders home for lunch. Be ready by 1.

"Any idea, what you are gonna fix?"

Time to get to work. 45 minutes later I had just finished the breakfast dishes when the phone rang. It was Elder Fallon. They were just turning onto our exit. No, Brent wasn't with him, he was making deliveries to widows in the ward but they could help me with dinner for the next hour until he got there. Lovely. I only had time to take off my PJ's and all 7 elders were there. They shoveled snow for us and all our neighbors and played with my crazy kids for the next hour while I threw together 2 large salads, not my best recipes ever but with the notice I had I was proud of the finished product, and 6 homemade pizzas.

Brent rescued me an hour later and began cooking up pizza's one by one. We started them off with the salads. I came in 15 minutes later to scoop me up some salad. An elder immediately stopped dishing himself and handed it over to me. There was about 1/4 cup left. Meanwhile Brent and I were delivering pizza after pizza but couldn't keep up. Each pizza disappeared within one minute of bringing it out. We finally got smart and saved a couple pieces in the kitchen before bringing one out. I would deliver one to the table and announce, "Okay, we got a Taco Pizza coming out next" After the fifth one, I announced, "Okay just one more pizza, and it's pepperoni."
Brent and I were a little overworked and hungry at this point, and did some math in the kitchen (they had all had about 6 pieces each, not to mention all our salad) and decided that maybe this pizza wouldn't be going out to the table after all. We would just save this one for US. So a couple minutes before it came out of the oven I went out and got their cookies from the car, dumped them on a platter and brought that out. There is no way they could eat any more pizza and would get full on those cookies and forget all about the last one.

Didn't work. One elder took one look at my huge pile of cookies and said, "Hey, that doesn't look like a pepperoni pizza to me!"

I went in and shared the bad news to Brent. We brought out the last pizza then. . .but took out another slice each first.
Great elders! I love it when my cooking is so well received. It was no big deal, just kinda funny for us cooks in the kitchen. It's not like we need more than a couple slices of pizza anyway.
And we broke out the ice cream as soon as we got them out the door.
See those clean plates. You would've thought that we had starved them or something. It's amazing what you can come up with if you have your food storage.

Meeting Santa

For Caroline it was hard to choose what to do first at the mall last week for the Breakfast at Santa event I signed us up for. Free breakfast, meet Santa, free ice cream cone, or a free carousel ride? I get sick on carousels and usually refuse to go with her, plus I am cheap and usually don't want to pay. So she is savoring this merry moment.
I went along and held Marcus. It wasn't so bad afterall.
What a surprise! The little man LOVES Santa!
And Caroline has loved everyone especially strangers her whole life. . . everyone except Santa. The previous two years she convinces me to take her to see him but always chickens out and won't go near him. It's normal for most kids to be afraid of Santa at this age but surprising for Caroline because she isn't most kids. But last week she was won over by the best Santa ever. He was so good we think he may be the real one. She would not leave Santa alone. She probably gave him 15 hugs. A handful on her turn and the rest of them whenever I turned my back on her. Some kid would be getting their picture taken and in rushes Caroline from behind giving him one more squeeze. So we didn't stay long.

Camille was busy in first grade and missed Santa. I took this picture yesterday just before sacrament meeting. Sunday mornings are too busy to get everyone pretty so we take turns. Camille's day was yesterday.

Ward Nativity Pageant

Savannah was cast as Mary and was thrilled. Until she saw the costumes and decided that a wise man was the best choice. Camille was happy to be a last minute Mary substitute.
Caroline was a real angel with feather wings. She was flitting around having the time 0f her life before the show when she fell and split her lip open, thus the red lip and frown. Isn't the girl with her finger on her nose the cutest star ever?
I don't think our kids will ever be happy with our usual garb of sheets, robes, and towels ever again. Look at the sweet wise man outfit Savannah snatched up.

The procession into the gym heads right by our favorite candy man standing on the right.

Brent was overheard one Sunday morning at our house, talking to his four year old daughter.

"Caroline, that is the last time you are allowed to babysit!" This was after he left her watching Marcus crawl around on our bed. He came into find Marcus screaming on the floor and a bewildered Caroline holding onto an empty pair of pants that he slipped right out of.

Then later (last Sunday) on the way home from church, Brent stopped for a red light and Marcus rolls out of his seat and onto the floor. The poor kids was okay but so confused . . WHAT HAPPENED? That's what I was wondering and was a little upset. Brent was distracted and forgot. This reminded me of the time Brent forgot to buckle 3 year sleeping Camille back into her stroller after we went through airport security. One minute later she was rolling down the escalator in her sleep. A man below ran up and caught her. Then we were so busy arguing about whose fault this catastrophe was (the father for not buckling her in or the mother for tipping the stroller) that we had a hard time taking a break from accusations to comfort our injured Camille.

Camille is sick at home today with the stomach flu, which she caught from Kennon who caught it at a sleepover last weekend. We are just grateful that was all that was going around at the sleepover. It's only the flu. . . not headlice.
I would be more grateful if Kennon could make it to the toilet next time. She got her bed and the bunk beneath her all in one shot the other night.

Kennon was cast as Mazy LaBird and Savannah as Gertrude McFuzz in Seussical, Jr. After all the arguing/tears because both wanted to be Mazy now they both decided that Savannah got the better part. Either way, the musical is going to be a hoot. Gertrude is a shy bird that has issues because her tail feathers are just too small to catch the eye of a elephant. In walks Fancy Mazy with her entourage, flaunting her fancy tail feathers and showing Savannah just how grand she is. The music is wonderful and I am pretty excited to see these two birds on the stage. Our girls have had so many opportunities at this school. I am going to hate to leave it behind after only one more year.

Brent is in his 5th season of dental finals. Only 3 more seasons and hopefully he'll never have to cram his brain full of useless facts again. It hasn't been too bad this time around. He has been for here for dinner every night the last two weeks and even helped cook and clean it up last night. I think his goals have changed the last couple semesters. Just pass. He always comes home and tells me that he got an 85% or an 87%. Then he says, "I studied too hard" I think that's because he could've easily got an 80% and not killed himself and basically it's the same grade. He also was sustained a few weeks ago as Buffalo ward Elder's Quorum President. So far a piece of cake compared to running a ward Relief Society. Maybe the men are just smarter and don't waste their time on so many details. I actually think it's just that they are men and thus don't have to deal with women and all the emotions, insecurites, etc that come with us.

I have a few Christmas festivites to record but I think I will wait to borrow Brent's computer so I can post pictures with it. Fat chance I 'll get it during finals. Maybe Santa will remember me and my poor ancient computer this Christmas. :)

Nascar Speed Racer Mile a Minute

I overheard Brent telling Savannah, "Sometimes your mother spends over an hour on a single paragraph when she is on her blog!" I didn't like that comment one bit.

So I sat down now with only 15 minutes to write. It's thursday and in 20 minutes I am off to a night of piano and ballet lessons and hours in the car. It's kind of an experiment, but Sweet Caroline is really messing me up already. She has interrupted me three time in the first two sentences ( and only one minute) to tell me about how her sucker is like lipstick, she found a tag inside Marcus's stocking, and also to beg me to play "Christmas" again with her. . . so and I am having a hard time speed writing and tuning her out at the same time.
The reason why my writing style came up was because Savannah said that she finished her school essay quickly in class the other day and then sat back down at her seat while all the other kids were still just getting started. Her teacher stood up then and announced to the class, "If you are all done with your essay, you should not be proud of yourself. You should be very ashamed!" Savannah is no idiot and being the only one finished she took this as a personal attack. So Brent was explaining that in writing it does help to use the allotted time and try to better your writing, like her mother does.

We have always enjoyed Savannah's class narratives. Anytime she gives us a report she is constantly changing back and forth from Savannah to teacher voice. After she told us about this essay comment she complained that every time she turns her work in or also if she makes one tiny mistake her teacher immediately lets out a "Nascar Speed Racer, Mile a Minute". That's her fourth grade nickname apparently. Brent said next time she says it Savannah should follow it up with a "VROOM, VROOM!" I seriously hope she has the guts to and if her teacher has a negative reaction, I want to hear about it.

This week the two older girls are trying out for the school musical, "Suessical, Jr". They both made call backs last night. Unfortunately Kennon got callbacks for the part that Savannah wanted and we had lots of tears. But after listening to the music as a family we all convinced Savannah that Gertrude McFuzz was just as good, or better, than Mayzie Bird. And we reminded her of all the girls in her class that would love to have a call back and really she should be glad to have a part. Like for instance the daughter of the mother that I talked to while we were waiting to pick up our kids from tryouts. She asked if my kids had been busy practicing, YES, then she said, "And practicing all their dance moves?" Huh? I didn't know there were dance tryouts?
I was a little confused. Savannah and Kennon cleared up the confusion when they told me about her daughter's tryout. While singing her lines she was twisting turning, bending over, swaying . . her mother had worked up an entire routine. I guess it was pretty funny and maybe a hair over the top. (Caroline just asked me about PBS kids and now the TV is on. . Why didn't I think of that? Without a TV a four year old girl never stops talking!) We are all pretty excited about the musical and I'm crossing my fingers that they both have a good part and this is going to be yet another competition between Kennon and Savannah where one has to take the backseat. It's tough for the two of them. Almost like they are twins, really.

Caroline is always talking but still talks like a kid, not one that will be in school next year. Like just now she told me, "Yes, it sure diz". When Caroline is talking Diz is Does. It's totally my fault. I hardly ever correct her. So I am bad parent or grammer teacher but from experience I know that all kids grow out of the speech problems way too quickly and I always miss the good old baby talk days. What would I give to hear 1st grade Savannah try to tell the lady on the airplane what grade she was in again? "So what grade are you in?" " Foorst" With surprise, "Fourth?" Then a angry Savannah, "NO, FIIIIIIST!" "Fifth?" This went on for a while. Till I finally stopped laughing in front of them and turned around and said, "FIRST".

So there is my NASCAR speed racer, mile a minute post. . .And I even spellchecked. And forst and diz are definitely not words according to this machine. But so cute!

Kennon took this picture of us sometime after 8 p.m. on Brent's last day of school this week while the kids were all running around. When we were first married this used to happen all the time. We would fall asleep on the couch and then have to drag ourselves to bed. It's bad enough to have to get yourself to bed when you are dead tired. So definitely don't sit down and get too cozy unless you have your five kids in bed. Then not only do you have to make it all the way upstairs to bed but you also have to brush teeth, drag kids in to their room and and tuck them in.
But it 's way more common to be lingering on our couch recently since this took center stage in our house. We are all hanging out down there a lot. . . now it's the best place to get warm.
I am just posting this picture for two reasons. First because I wonder if you are counting up like I am how many blogs you have seen this same shirt Marcus is wearing in the last week. For me this is # 5. Many us of apparently can't resist a Target shirt that gets down to $1.75.
I also wanted to point out Marcus's shoes. I have been going crazy this winter trying to keep socks and shoes on the kid. It is freezing on our wood floors and having something on his feet is a necessity. But he pulls or kicks off anything I put on him. And everywhere I go I am dropping shoes and socks when I carry him. I just couldn't handle it.
A couple weeks ago I picked up this pair at Old Navy because they had an ankle strap that looked promising. Brent added some extra security above that by poking a couple holes and adding shoelaces he cut off the ends of his boots.
Now they never come off. Unless I am lazy and neglect to tie the square knot I was instructed to tie. These little shoes are going to save my sanity this winter. Thank you husband!
The girls were really frusterated the night of this picture. They kept building domino towers, only to have Marcus knock them over. Kennon repeatedly picked him up and hauled him out of the room and they would have about 15 seconds before he made it back on all fours to plow them over. He is getting pretty fast.

Just the 7 of us

Twelve years and we finally pulled off our very own thanksgiving feast for the first time EVER. Here's Brent starting off the feast. After his big bite he announced that we are starting up a new family tradition. Then he passed the drumstick around the table and we each had a bite. I am all about starting up family traditions for the holidays, But. . .

This one? . . . . it's a little ridiculous! As usual though, I went along with his idea.Caroline likes all of daddy's ideas.

Marcus likes a good chicken bone, too although, he was sick all thanksgiving day. Refused to nap, had a fever, and cried all day. This is about the only time he wasn't crying yesterday.
Fortunately I am a supermom and planned ahead so I was able to hold him all morning and still pull off the perfect meal. Brent showed up at the last second fresh from his turkey bowl and also put in his two cents on meal preparation so I couldn't take all the credit.
I say Perfect because I successfully prepared all the Fielding Family Traditionals complete with the Cauliflower and Cheese Dish and the Yams with Marshmallows. Mmmmmm..... but I think I am the only one at the table to fully appreciate this perfect combo yesterday.

I am also the only one who even touched the cranberry sauce. Sometimes I feel like I cook just for me. I guess it wasn't exactly a true Fielding meal because we only had one salad, and two different kinds of pies. For a true Fielding thanksgiving you need three dinner plates. One for the main meal, one for the 6 different salads, and one for the 8 different pies.
But what are ya gonna do when you are cooking for just one family? I thought it was scaling down a hair was appropriate.
We actually were planning on sharing our family feast this year. That's how we ended up with a FREE turkey. We invited 2 INDIANS in our ward and I was so excited for the great blog I was going to have. The white men and the Indians together for the feast. They even promised to wear feathers and Brent was going to wear a big belt buckle. And they were bringing a 20 lb. turkey. Caroline has been doing an Indian dance around the house since she heard and kept asking, "When are the Indians coming?" Kennon keeps correcting us all that they are Native Americans according to her fifth grade studies but not according to my indian friend Janice Snyder.
But when I called Wednesday afternoon to confirm they canceled because of a sick son. So, suddenly we were on our own and without a turkey for dinner. But let me tell you Indians, keep their word. My 78 year old indian friend cooked that turkey for us and had it ready for our 2 o'clock feast.
Here is another fielding family tradition. Grandpa Fielding is a jack of all trades, and one of those hobbies is making games for his grand kids. This one is a lot like the game Sorry but a lot more fun. . . unless you are a nice enough daddy to let your 4 year old play. . . then not so fun. But thanks Grandpa. We have entertained many guests with this original game complete with golf tees.

Why can't I. . .

. . . .just post a recipe and call it good? Why go on and on? . . . I Don't Know.

When we first moved the neighborhood kids were over a lot (TOO much) Their parents were working and I was the new town mom still learning the ropes. Sometimes they stayed for dinner.

A 12 year old girl who had eaten with us several times remarked once,

"You guy's eat way different (or in other words way yuckier) than we do."

We were eating navy bean soup at the time.

So I asked her what they ate at her house. She thought for a while and then said,

"Well, mostly just pizza."

Big surprise. That's about all you can find around here. Oh. . .and subs and wings.

First of all my kids love bean soup. But we eat pizza a lot too. I don't dare buy them at any of our neighborHOOD establishments, though. Something about graffiti on the counter, and tattoos and F bombs in the kitchen that ruins my appetite.

We make our own.

We used to do only boring Hawaiian or Cheese and Pepperoni . . .

but lately I've been creative and imitated some of the pizza boxes in the freezer aisle.

Last night. . . GREEK PIZZA!

De- li- ci- ous! Try it at your house.

First, skip the red sauce and mix this up in your blender/food processor.

1/8 c. olive oil

4 garlic cloves

red pepper flakes

italian seasoning

Spread on one crust.

(Be careful when you are chopping up that garlic. I picked Marcus up off my kitchen floor this morning . . Whew! -He had terrible breath. I found a half a clove under his tongue.)

Top with:

Shredded mozzarella

Chopped fresh spinach

Sliced Mushrooms

Sliced Olives

Crumbled Feta Cheese

More Mozzarella

Other yummy additions: pepperocini peppers, red onion, sausage, or cooked chicken

Top with Sliced Tomatoes after baking.

Don't forget the SLICED TOMATOES.

Crust Recipe

Now, the secret to a good homemade pizza is:

Bake on a preheated stone. (Preheated for 1 hour at 500 degrees)

This is a very good way to heat up your freezing buffalo kitchen.

Here's how we do it:

For Two Crusts

Combine in mixer:

3 1/3 c. flour 1/2 tsp. yeast 2 tsp. salt

Add 1 1/2 c. hot water

Knead 10 min in mixer.

Rise about 5 hours. (sometimes I short the rising to more like 2 hours if I have to, but I would recommend making in the morning if you are going to have pizza for dinner.)

Roll (Actually just squish it out with your fingers. This recipe is too sticky to roll) your crust out on parchment paper and slide it right from cutting board to stone right in the oven.

Bake 9-11 minutes.

Other pizza we make/love are Buffalo Chicken Pizza and Taco. Please let me know if you want these easy recipes.

And sorry that I didn't include pictures. I am way too busy during the dinner hour (on patrol -"Stop picking off your spinach, Savannah!") !" to be snapping beautiful pictures for the blog.

Celebrating 7 years with Camille

Camille on her birthday was easy to please.
Just one thing she wanted . . .Mashed Potatoes and Peas
All week she kept reminding me, "Please, please mom. . . PEAS!.

She had two plates full. During her second plate she started choking and I finally convinced her to STOP celebrating.

I don't know how she had room for any potatoes and peas, because of this present she got earlier. . her very own basket of all of her favorites. Beef Stick, Sunny D, oranges, pears, kiwis, strawberries, and raspberries. This little farmer girl at heart was in heaven all day.

I was planning on incorporating this present into family meals. Yeah, right!
I keep finding little green stems around the house. Yesterday she walked around chomping on one end of the giant beef, and while the rest of us ate cornflakes this morning she came out with this pretty plate she had created with HER berries. She is not one of those people who waste half the strawberry cutting off the stem, as you can see.

She loves 1st grade. Her favorite time in class is journal/drawing time. One journal entry this year was accompanied with a picture of Caroline in our tree house with some panties in midair. After deciphering the 1st grade words I realized she was sharing the time Caroline had a treehouse accident and threw the panties off the side.
Now 7, she's finally old enough to join her sisters in ballet. We are working really hard to get her to learn that toes are pointed out, not IN.
Her best friend is still Caroline. They sleep snuggled up together every night and seriously don't fight at all. This is not normal is it? After dealing with all the Kennon/Savannah bedroom drama this is a well deserved break for her parents.

Candice is bloggin'

My sister Candice is pregnant and knew it was time to join the blogging community. She called the reigning blog diva of our house (Kennon) for help getting started. Kennon asked for her username and password so she could talk her through it and was lovin' it! Especially when she said, "Sure, go ahead and make a playlist for me." Kennon added some Amy Grant and Jordin Sparks and called it good but Sunday night Brent found out about it.

Against Kennon's wishes Brent logged in and redid her playlist. I think we may have offended her with some of our choices but believe me they were all random. Except the opera, of course. That was intentional. So if you are a friend of Candice, check it out here.

pressure is on now Candice - so get blogging! And don't forget we know your password!

Red Flags?

Darn, I promised a book report! Well, the Obama book was way too boring for any real reading. So I did a quick skim and found out he didn't even write it. No author at all -just campaign propaganda. CHANGE and all the stuff he will do for us if elected. Well, I 'm not too interested in what politicians SAY. I want to learn more of what he has DONE, and can't wait to see what he is going to DO.

Instead I read/skimmed Scott McClellan's, "Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception". Skimmed because I kept thinking it's time to move on, this guy is done. But it was interesting enough to read a lot of it. It confirmed everything I really believe about this administration. Bush Is a Good Guy (sorry bush haters) who really cares and believes in freedom for all. He felt so passionate about spreading democracy globally that he led us blindly into a war with an insane faith that we could win it. He had really good intentions, but intentions that I don't support.

America has no business going around the world knocking off dictators and enforcing freedom. There are too many bad guys out there for us to take them all on. We can't afford it, it doesn't work, and it isn't right - no matter how good it sounds to spread liberty throughout the middle east. We have been against it from the beginning. Brent, I and . . . Senator Obama. Unlike Hillary.

I've checked out a lot of books this week trying to win the library raffle for a Wegmans gift certificate for Thanksgiving groceries. One ticket in the can for each two books I check out. Pretty good chance winning with 6 patrons in one family. We may have to start going every other day instead of just once a week. And just skim and turn 'em in.

Speaking of skimming- Savannah has been strongly accused of it. For the past two years she has had teachers that adore her. They acknowledge she is a speedboat and that she races through every assignment and every book that you place in front of her, but love her for it and recognize she's special.

I went to her parent teacher conference a few weeks ago planning on hearing the usual raving reviews. Instead I was told repeatedly that she is seeing RED FLAGS. Apparently reading 7 Harry Potter Books in 2 weeks is a very BAD thing, not something to brag about. According to her teacher her reading speed (179 wpm) indicates that she is comprehending very little. I just couldn't even believe we were spending the whole conference talking about red flags. The other red flag was that she prefers to work independently and gets bored in group work. No surprise there. But I wanted to be fair and do a little research so I went straight home and had her take some comprehension tests online.

Now I am seeing red flags -About Myself! My fourth grader scored better than me. After several tests I determined that the child is brilliant. Now I just need to convince her teacher. I have been patient with her because Kennon had her last year and learned a ton with her. But my two girls learn very differently. One of the things that makes me the angriest is that she has assigned her to a certain reading level and won't budge. Savannah read every book in that level in the classroom in the first 2 months and asked to move on to level T. Her teacher tells her, "I don't see how that could be possible. I don't know what to do." Hello, let her move on to the next level!

Or I am taking it to the next level. . . ."Hi, this is Mrs. Casper calling, May I speak to the principal?"

Obamanation

For two days in a row, Camille has come home from school and said the same thing.

"Mom, Obama won." (like I didn't know and she is breaking the sad news to me) I guess it is all the talk of 1st grade.

The last couple days I started and finished "The Obama Nation" by Jerome R. Corsi, PH. D. published sometime during the summer. It's a warning about the '08 candidate and how he is so far left there is NO WAY he could gain a majority in this country and win the election this fall. UNLESS the other side fails to focus on issues and we allow his charisma and personality to float him into office on a wave of Obamamania (those are my clever words but that's exactly what I got out of the book and also exactly what happened.)

And now I'm really sad about our new president elect, . . . but because I know I am way too easily swayed by a good political argument, I got myself down to the library this afternoon and checked out "Change We Can Believe In".
Gotta be fair and hear both sides. That book report will come later.

And I am not so influenced by one side that I don't see the silver lining in the dissapointing election. We now have the greatest inspriration ever for the African American community. How far we have come in a such a short time! I keep thinking of watching Roots as a kid and being so shocked that this was a part of my America. I grew up in a completely nonracist home and honestly didn't even think about the color of one's skin and couldn't understand what the great debate was about. Now living in the city my eyes have been opened. I see there is a great divide and animosity present on both sides of this line. Maybe this will bring the two sides somewhat closer together.

Indian Summer

Here's 8 month old Marcus enjoying his monthly birthday outside in November in 70 plus degree Buffalo! It feels way too good to be true. I talked the kids into yard work with the promise of a really big pile of leaves. The pile was raked under the rope swing and we had an instant hit that lasted for hours yesterday.

And we had all day off to work and play since our school district takes the fall holidays very seriously and school is always canceled for important days like Halloween and Decision 2008, of course. Especially when such a important candidate is on the ballot. We are bursting with Obamaness around here.

Speaking of voting we had wide range of votes cast in this family in the presidential race.
I finally caved to the establishment and decided to vote for McCain, after wasting tons of time wondering if I should go with my husband and the constitution party. As it turns out, I am wondering if his so called "Chuck Baldwin" even exists. He definitely doesn't in the state of NY as he wasn't even a choice on our ballot yesterday. Poor Brent had to settle for Bob Barr in the voting booth.

And here are the results of the local elementary "Kids Vote" the school principal read over the intercom Monday afternoon.

"345 for Barak Obama 130 -John McCain . . . and 3 votes for . . . Chu. . . Charles Baldwin?? "

At least someone was able to take a stand in this family and make their vote count. Good job, girlies! Daddy is proud!

Cabin?

For the last month my husband keeps chattering every weekend about taking us all out to the woods to a little cabin he heard about. Finally this halloween weekend I agreed.

Brent and one of his senior patients had really hit it off. He's the kind of guy that after sitting all morning in Brent's dental chair once said, "So you don't have anyone lined up this afternoon? I'll stay, if you want me to." And then he kept his jaw propped open for 6 hours while Brent practiced on him. So a very nice guy. And this old man had a cabin deep in the woods and and we were all welcome to use it. And it was all stocked up. We only needed to bring: Water, food, and blankets.

He did mention that there was no indoor plumbing, which should've been a red flag that this wasn't anything like Grandpa Casper's cabin at Priest Lake. I was nervous, but I hate to be accused of being unadverturous so I just kept my mouth shut and packed.

When we picked up the key I started to get a little more nervous. His patient mentioned that he hadn't been up in the loft upstairs in a couple years! But for the most part he was very positive and said there was "wall to wall carpeting" upstairs in the loft where we would sleep for the night. He did mention that we might want to take the mattresses outside to shake the flies off of them. Then his wife packed me some cleaning supplies. I thanked her and said it looks we are in for a family adventure. She said, "Yeah, but I'm not sure what kind of adventure that might be."

(Someone truly has a sense of humor. This was the sign just inside the cabin door)

For the 80 mile drive Brent and I for the most part kept our reservations to ourselves. I didn't want to appear to have a bad attitude, and Brent didn't want to voice his worries or we would've never gone. Kennon had already argued hard to stay home. She kept saying "why would I want to go?" "It's going to be dirty, stinky, old, and full of spiders".
Our girls first adventure happened before we even checked out the cabin. The girls were all dying for a bathroom when we pulled in and this was the only choice besides the great outdoors. I was still in the car getting the baby out when Savannah came running back completely disgusted and declared, "I am never going to go in that again!" Whatever, I thought then. I had no idea she would be right.
Meanwhile Brent was having a great time warming up the cabin with a fire in the stove. When I walked in I was shocked. It was tiny, dirty, and looked way more like an old shed than a cabin. It actually reminded me a lot of our shed in our backyard and I certainly had never thought about having a sleepover in that.

The kids hurried up the ladder inside to check out our sleeping quarters in the loft. The loft had been Brent's big selling point. We were going to sleep all together in one big room, watch a movie on the computer and have a great old time. I kept imagining a hay loft but had been assured that there was "wall to wall " carpeting. Here's what greeted me:

Kennon came down after one minute and told me, "There are flies and rollie pollies everywhere!" So I headed upstairs, a huge pit sinking deep into my stomach to check out the wall to wall carpet of flies and rollie pollies. No more than 15 seconds in the loft and Camille and I were screaming our heads off. "A RAT! A RAT!" she hollered out to those downstairs.

It was actually a mouse but it was alive and running around on those rollie pollie mattresses and wall to wall carpeting. Brent ran up with the pan he was going to cook our dinner in to squash it for us. It had run behind some more piles off mattresses on the floor and we couldn't find it. He started talking about finding some mouse traps. But honey, even if we caught this one who knows how many there really are running around in here for maybe the last 2 years and were we actually suppossed to sleep in their habitat?

He was surpisingly very easy to convince that we were not sleeping in this "cabin". We weren't even going to sit around his fire in this "cabin". We were there about 2 more minutes. Long enough to see a huge black spider careening down right over our heads. Talk about haunted houses. Call me a spoiled 21st century girl but this place was definitely not suitable for our family. I kept thinking of pioneers and how happy they would be to come across a free cabin like this in the woods so yeah, I feel guilty to be so spoiled.

But just in case this generous patient of Brent ever finds this blog I am sure that this is a wonderful little cabin for an old hunter. Brent would've just shook out his mattress, set his traps, and cozied up for the night if it weren't for his women.


So, we had some really good laughs at our cabin and ALL THE WAY HOME that evening! We couldn't come up with anything else to do in the country late in the day so we had to call it a night. We did hit Wendy's twice. One frosty each on the way up and one each on the way home. Free Frosty coupons are an awesome supplement to the $2 plan. Thank you Mr. Candy Man. He gave us about 30 of those little orange cards.

Overall the excursion was a huge success in the way of family outings. Sure we didn't get to stay in a nice cabin, we wasted time and energy packing and unpacking our car for nothing, but somehow it still was a heck of a lot of fun. Even Kennon said she was glad she came along and I am still trying to figure that one out. I guess she just likes us.