One big mess in the primary room leads to one spooky haunted house. Thanks to all our helpers - the Steenblieks, Shaws, Sowells, and Evans families for creating our bishopric rooms:

"Bernie's Butcher Shop" "House of br. Payne"

"Bishop Kay and the Buffalo Killharmonic Orchestra"

Somehow I missed a picture of the awesome Potions room set up by our ward witch Diana Hopkins! My excuse is I stayed too busy all night searching for my kids in the carnival and popping into the primary room every 2 minutes to harass my husband to stop building the haunted house and start running it or he was going to wake up and find the party over with. We finally started it 45 min. late.

Orphan Annie and Daddy Warbucks

This is the best we could come up with for a little party where costumes were mandatory. I dyed my hair red and Brent shaved himself bald, . . er balder. Oh, and sewed himself a homemade bow tie and cumber bun and rolled up a brown paper bag cigar.

Candy, Costumes and the undoing of the "Scrinch"

What a festive week we are having in honor of one of my least favorite holidays. We have something to dress up for everyday this week with halloween ballet, school parties, trick or treating and ward parties. I didn't say I didn't like it. It just has a low rank in my feelings of holiday love. The following reasons may have something to do with it:

Marcus will pull on his winnie the pooh ears all night screaming that this is cruel and unusual punishment

Caroline eats nothing but candy all week and will be crying anytime she isn't

Camille doesn't know that we own a trash for candy wrappers

Savannah has a different costume planned for every event and half her room is devoted to her costume pile

Kennon excalated the begging for piercing her ears all in the name of a good gypsy costume

My kids have a bad habit of shunning their costumes at the last minute and being super creative, making their mother angry that they won't wear what she bought on clearance last November.
They will be dressing up a total of 5 times in 4 days so they should have ample creative opportunities this week. Savannah has a box of stuff she has collected through out the house and has all 5 costumes ready in there for the week.

Halloween is so-so for Kashann, but I just discovered this year it is tops for Brent. We were asked to be in charge of the Haunted House tonight at the church. Brent is thinking haunted house constantly even in the middle of his midterms the last couple weeks. He has loved planning it and loved spending our money on it. Every night he comes home with something new that we NEED.

If you know my husband you know this is completely not like him. He pretty much believes in not spending money on anything unless it is going to save you money. In Christmas's past I have given him a nickname - "Scrinch". I made it up after deciding that he was the Grinch and Scrooge rolled into one. So I am happy he finally found his passion and hoping that it will roll on through the holidays. Here is the running total:

(I might be a little off on $ because I am not the one actually pulling out the card, but this is close)

$20 black light- $20 strobe light -$30 Fog machine -$20 spiders -$10 Spotlight-$5 on fake blood -$5 fog liquid-$5 cobwebs AND $300 A new fireplace

The last one isn't an actual part of our haunted house but I am including it in haunted house expenses because he only went to the fireplace store to get free empty boxes for his Bat Cave, but then couldn't resist bringing home a full box.

And I am 100% on board with staying warm this winter so I didn't make him take it back.

As far as the other expenses go, I guess we are officially in the ward haunted house business for life. Doesn't pay well, but it's extremely entertaining for Brent and the kids.

she's all that

Concerning our family blog, if you would like to SEE more, yet HEAR LESS . . . Feel free to check out this .

About once a week I hop over to Kennon's blog and am always suprised at my 5th grader's choices of posts. If nothing else it is fun to see how her spelling is coming along. Should I tell her about spell check or just let her keep it real?

And she keeps up with all of your blogs better than I. So let's keep them all G-rated, eh?

And feel free to leave a comment. She is constantly checking and can't understand why she never gets any.

Belly up to the bar, boy

I was finally well enough and brave enough to go back to ballet. The girls get home from ballet class about an hour before I have to leave for my Thursday class, which is crazy. So I asked Brent to pick them up on his way home so I could be getting dinner ready. He readily agreed. He is happy to see how is money is being spent.

He's very serious about these ballet lessons and demands to see their progress on a regular basis . . . which sometimes leads to him getting up and showing us how it ought to be done. He just can't resist. So on Thursday he arrived early and "watched" through the open door.

(I use the word watched very loosely because it is still being debated if that is all he was doing.)

After dinner the man in scrubs showed the ballerina's a few things that they needed to work on. We have a teeny, tiny living room so it's pretty hard to practice your across the floor moves, but we do our best.

So we all watched while the pro (ha) showed us how it is supposed to look,
"two hops then a double hop, with a pointed toe, back straight, head up" . . ya da ya da ya da"

Then we all practiced a bit and before long it was time for me to get into my tights and take off.

An hour later I did this same dance across the floor with my class.

Claire the instructor remarked,

"Hey I saw your husband doing these out in the hall earlier. He's pretty good."

So I came home and told Brent.

He got this really confused look on his face, trying to recall. He couldn't remember actually dancing and can't figure out how she might've have seen him dancing if he doesn't even remember doing it. But it's as I told him, "Like she could even make that up if she wanted to."

We do have a family rate. So Brent just be a man and stop hiding in the halls and . . . belly up to the bar.

note: "Belly up to the bar, boys" is from Unsinkable Molly Brown. It may be called something else? I just remember the song and I can't resist quoting from my favorite musicals.

one more note: I think I am dead meat for this one.

HOT buns

A couple weeks ago on one of our last warm days we barbecued hamburgers on the grill and served them on homemade buns, a favorite recipe from my Grandma Pieper.

I hadn't made this recipe forever. Camille loved those buns and decided she was going to make a couple sandwiches to bring to school the next day. She made one pickle and one PB and J.

That afternoon she told me, "Mom, everyone at school loved my buns. My teacher came over to me and she said,

"Oooh, Camille let me see those buns. I wonder where I could get some buns like that."

"Then everyone else started looking at my buns, and saying Oooh, Camille we love your buns."

Then she paused, thought for a second and said, "Actually, they loved YOUR buns, Mom!"

I was laughing by then and she finally caught on.

Since then I have had a good time teasing her about coming home from school bragging that everyone loves her buns.

Last week I went to parent teacher conferences and found out she didn't make anything up. Ms. Trusello brought up the yummy buns right away. I told her I already knew all about how much she loved my buns.

Grandma Pieper's Famous Buns

For Excellent hamburgers, sloppy joes, or BBQ

(or a pickle sandwich that is the envy of all who see)

3 c. hot water
1/2 c. sugar
1 T. salt
1 1/2 heaping T. yeast
1/4 c. oil
Blend together, then add:
about 6 c. flour (I like to use about 2 wheat flour)
1/4 c. gluten flour (if you have it, I don't)
Beat in mixer or knead for 10 minutes.
Let raise once till double.
Roll out about 1/2 in thick and cut out circles. Raise again.
Bake 375 12-15 min or until golden.

Slice through the middle to serve. These are also great to freeze in baggies for a quick sandwiches.

Grandma Pieper, We love your HOT buns!

Their fame has spread all the way to NY.

Feeling toasty

We saw some snow flurries this morning as the kids were leaving for the bus. So it should be getting pretty cold in here, but all day I just kept thinking how warm our house was staying. It must be the beans I am boiling on the stove, I kept thinking. Then suddenly I realized I was getting hot and that just didn't seem right. And I could still hear the heater running. So I raced over and found our thermostat was now at 95 degrees. Who knows how long it has been cranking out the heat?

Brent is not going to be happy about that.

Caroline admitted to turning it up sometime today, she doesn't remember when. She was running around barefoot in a sundress and was cold. That's what happens when you sit down to blog and ignore the children. Luckily we have a tiny house that heats up quick.

I just turned it down to 65.

Let the freezing begin. It's going to be a long six months before I am warm like this again so right now I am going to sit here feel warm and cozy for the very last time. . .thanks to Caroline.

Never bored in our ward

Fast and Testimony Meeting is a chance for anyone to get up and share their faith and the feelings burning within their souls. But most of the time we keep our "soles" on the ground.

Unless you happened to be in the Buffalo Ward this last testimony meeting. We have a dear sister who loves to preach enthusiastic testimonies about what we should and shouldn't be doing. She became so excited during her testimony, she suddenly whipped off her shoe and began banging it on the pulpit. At this point, our kind bishop got up and whispered something softly in her ear. Not offended she put her shoe back on and finished her testimony. I was in the mother's room unfortunately and missed the whole thing. :( But heard all about it later.

And I got my own experience with this same sister after the meeting when I went up to say Hi. She was still quite excited and wanted to make sure I didn't miss the sermon.

We all need to just "REACH OUT" she spat out, right into my open mouthed smiling face. She didn't notice so I just stood there in a frozen smile, trying not to choke on her saliva while she turned and walked away.

It's been a couple weeks and I didn't catch anything. So apparently nothing harmful was passed mouth to mouth.

Our meetinghouse is a converted office building in downtown. It looks mostly like a LDS meetinghouse, or maybe I have just gotten used to it. It's located across the street from city project housing. I guess a raid of young boys dropped by one time during sacrament meeting and took off with the contents of our ward's coat closet. At least that was the story I was told to explain why our door has a bell.

A couple years ago that was your only way in. Everyone had to push the bell that then rang all over the building, loud and clear in the chapel. So you better not be late or everyone in sacrament meeting will be alerted and be watching for the late family to enter.

This last year though suddenly the building is always open. I haven't had to push the bell in months. We have so many missionaries ( between 8-12 always) that I guess the ward finally got smart and asked them to stand there and open it rather than making everyone feel so unwelcome. A doorbell is actually a really good idea for a meeting house. How many times have you stood outside the church banging on the door windows just hoping someone in the gym happens to come out and get a drink or use the restroom and spots you?

Here's a few more buffalo ward- isms I want to remember.

Routine Headlice checks. A couple weeks after coming into the ward the bishopric announced that it was headlice season and all of our children would be checked during primary and asked to leave if they were caught with bugs. All the primary teachers started wearing their hair in ponytails every Sunday and several families disappeared for a couple months.

We sing way louder here for the congregational hymns. I've been in some wards that you felt like you were singing a solo if you dared to raise your voice above a whisper. Here I can bellow to my soul's content and fit right in.

And I'll never forget one of the first benedictions of the Buffalo Ward given by Br. Stull, well known for not hiding his exuberance. He began, "At times like this we just want to say, "Whew, Lord! What a meeting!"

I've gotten used to lots of smells I have rarely been exposed to before in a church building. Smoke isn't the worst one, unfortunately. I heard once that if you don't smell cigarettes in the chapel you all need to be working a little hard to be a missionary.

Jeans here are just as common as skirts in the Relief Society room and the president better not think about preaching about it or she can expect someone to march out.

And have you ever had someone jump up and holler, "I am gonna slap you if you don't be quiet" at another sister during your home, family and personal enrichment class. I was the teacher and didn't even see it coming. Luckily she opted to storm out instead of carrying through on the threat.

And every good ward has a candy man. My ward had one when I was a kid. His name was Wally Demille. He always had a tic tac for me.

Br. Hudson in our ward is the candy man to beat all candy mans. He is not very young or healthy but every sunday he is there lugging around bags filled with wares to hand out after the meeting. It is not uncommon for Caroline to leave church - one fist crammed with candy while the other hand juggles a couple long pretzels, a bag of grapes, and a juice bottle.

But No ward is boring. Even in little old basin city where diversity doesn't really even exist I still remember laughing my head off over some of the stuff our bishop in Basin City let get announced during sacrament meeting.

One of my personal favorites was the announcement that all of our husbands weren't going to get kissed for the next month, because they would all be growing out their facial hair for the Pioneer Party Beard Contest.

Then another time I remember this. And it is a direct quote delivered 5 short minutes before the sacrament was administered. "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is not going to be just any old New Years Eve party. When you walk in here Saturday night, You are going to KNOW that there is a party going on!"

Man I miss that party ward. We really did know how to have a good time.

But I am sure that in a couple years I am going to miss doorbells, super singing, blue jeans on Sunday, the crying all the way home as we fight over our stash from the candy man, and even Br. Stull. . . . But definitely not the headlice.

If I missed anything worth mentioning can my fellow buffalonians please remind me?

thank heaven 4 little girls

Do you feel more grateful this time of year? I do.

Fall is the time to relax from a busy summer, and enjoy the natural beauties around you. So I am taking time to enjoy the season and Count my Blessings.

My girls are growing up :(

But that's okay because it just keeps getting better. When I think of the years ahead with these ladies I feel so lucky. Shopping trips, cooking thanksgiving dinner together, sharing clothes, lunch dates, running buddies, picking out 4 wedding dresses, ganging up on Brent. It just all sounds so fun and I feel so blessed to be a mother of these 4 that are becoming my best friends.

And Thank you Stephanie T for being our photographer last weekend.

Proof

. . . that we are a happy couple. Just in case you wondered. And the other love of my life . . . my 20 lb. mini brent

What is it with bald men? I can't get enough of 'em.

a note from our babysitter

We came home at 9 p.m. from our dinner date and found a quiet and VERY CLEAN house. . . and this note on the table. We had left for our date in a rush- dinner all over the table, dishes in the sink and I didn't even mention cleaning up.

I am posting this so I can remember this very good deed in the future. Sometimes those honery kids can be so sweet.

And Here's the payment:

Daddy's Doggybag of "All you can Eat Shrimp" leftovers

HMMM! Red Lobster for Breakfast. Kennon was right there too, but she is too old to be photographed with pasta spilling from her mouth. She better be. She is our babysitter.

Election is in 3 weeks, and I still don't know who I am voting for.

Brent's made up his mind last week. He is voting for . . . DA, da, da, DA. . . .Chuck Baldwin!

Ever heard of him or his Constitution Party?

I hadn't until my husband started raging against McCain for going along with the bailout. The bail out was the final straw for Brent.

He hasn't liked the republicans for years, but now for the first time he isn't going to vote for them. I used to think he was a crazy Bircher (john birch society member) and wished he wouldn't be so skeptical of Bush. I have really resisted his negativity concerning republican leadership. I grew up listening to el Rushy and it seems like he never wavers in his support and I wasn't going to either. ( I haven't listened to him at all lately so I don't know if that is still the case) But I slowly have had to admit Brent's been right all along. About the Iraq war definitely, but also about how democrats and republicans are pretty much the same nowadays.

Our girls were telling us tonight that they would be voting at school soon in Kid's Vote. Their Dad told them to cast their vote for Baldwin.

"Huh? We can't do that Dad!"

They say there are only 2 choices on their ballots and neither of them is a Baldwin. And why is he voting for him anyway, Savannah wanted to know. Does it have anything to do with the fact that his name is "Baldwin, Dad?"

We have had plenty of political discussions at the dinner table lately and this started another training session.

When I tucked her in tonight I asked Savannah who she's gonna vote for and she said, "Chuck Baldwin." Not too sure how she is going to do it, but it should be interesting.

And as for me, I have always thought it was so important to vote but I am so frustrated this election about my choices. Either way it seems like a wasted vote since neither is representing me at all. So I may as well waste it on Chuck.

But I was so mad at Ross Perot candidates back in '92. I personally blamed them for electing Clinton.

But then we had our 8 republican years and it clearly hasn't been anything like I had hoped for. I am not blaming the economy and the war all on Bush. But I am putting a lot of the blame on him for going along with it all. And All of the spending. That's where they are all the same. Something happens to the guys back in Washington. They get it in their heads that it is their job to take care of everyone. And so they steal all of our money to do it.

And they don't help any of us out at all. They actually do commercials here in NY to promote food stamps! What are all my fellow buffalonians on food stamps, free rent, heat and health care going to do when there is nothing left to help them anymore? We have trained the people to depend on the government like it is always going to be there for them. And someday it just may not.

And our church has repeatedly taught us to be self- sufficient. My Grandma Pieper is in Elder Packer's ward in SLC. I called her last night to check on her and we got talking about the state of affairs today and she whipped out the notes she had scribbled during his testimony two weeks ago.

Basically he warned them that now is the time to start following the prophet. Make sure you are prepared. He talked about living through the great depression and said that it is going to get worse than that. And many of us are so used to having everything we want and it ain't gonna be easy for those folks.

So stock up on that food storage. Even if you are going to be done with dental school in a 1 1/2 years and thought it was time to be using it up. I guess we carry our wheat, and rice around with us from state to state. Better to rent a larger Uhaul then take a chance on starving your kiddos.

And we can all find ways to stock up a little by cutting back on other things. . . Like walking right on by the Target clearance racks for starters. They are EVIL!

And also now is also the time to make sure our families are reading the scriptures and praying together everyday. We once had a family cheer we did after each morning devotional.

We put our hands together like a football team and screamed, "Not gonna miss a day! Yeah!"
It's CHEESY. . . but it was fun and it did help us to keep the habit. We better start it up again and stop missing here and there. Kennon might be past the family cheer stage.

During the latest General Conference session it seems to me that our prophet kept talking about first living and loving life today and secondly having hope and faith in tomorrow. Even in scary times there is always peace to be found in living the gospel.

Ok, so this is turning into a sermon but I really was due for some blogging after a 5 day break.

And Brent is too busy to chat lately due to lots of studying. And I've been staying home giving my bad leg and neck (that is the tight musle lately) a driving break AND I am starting to feel a bit chatty.

Can't wait till tomorrow is over and the big pharmacology test has passed. . . So Brent will stop telling me every 5 minutes that he is going to die on Thursday.

Oh, and also so I can use his computer to post some pics and stop boring all of you to death with pure essays lately.

THE very last "bad back" post

I am totally getting better. Now I wish that I wouldn't have blogged about "my poor back" because I do feel a little silly. I can get myself very worked up when I start having some little problem and think, "OK, this time it's Gonna Be the Big One." I have had SO MANY false alarms. And don't think I am not grateful that they have been. Brent has heard it all but continues putting up with my overreacting. Is it a woman thing or just a Kashann thing? I don't know.

One time last year I was on the phone talking to the bishop. Brent and I were both sitting in bed. I was the RSP then and it was a long conversation, but about nothing in particular. For some reason awhile into the conversation my chin started to quiver and I couldn't get it to stop. By the time I was wrapping the conversation up my whole face was stiff and quivering, if that makes sense.

I hung up and started describing my condition to Brent and finally realized that. . . this must be LOCKJAW. It seems like I could even remember a rusty nail in the basement a few weeks before that I had brushed up against. I rambled on about my lockjaw until I fell asleep a few minutes later. Of course in my sleep I had a complete recovery from this life threatening condition. I think it was just shivering that made me get stiff.

That's just a little example of the way my mind start racing when something feels a little weird.

So I am not too afraid to admit that I mighta kinda sorta created my own back problem. I got so tense once I started having just a little back pain. And I also tried to fix it by practicing ultra good posture. Even laying in bed I would concentrate on keeping my back completely straight. If anything was out of alignment I was going to fix it by forcing it back in. So before I knew it practically my whole body was KILLING me.

Stress, Stupidity, and Sciatica. That's what did it. My Dr. was nice and didn't exactly put it in those terms but after such a swift recovery I am thinking I got the whole thing diagnosed.

Unfortunately the Sciatica is not going away (Boo hoo!. . . all you prego women are thinking. Join the club!) but I think I can handle a little bit of pain. I'm pretty good coping with nagging pain, but not so good with nagging stress.

What about you? Hopefully you are smarter than me and your stress doesn't cause your pain.

Whew! nothing but chronic sciatica!

Or maybe just acute sciatica but isn't that so much better than a slipped or herniated disk?

Last night I went to the Dr. Stiff, Sore, and EMOTIONAL. I was ready for bad news.

After an examination his diagnosis was:

He was positive that there wasn't anything wrong with my disks. I have sciatica -irritated nerves (probably made worse by some extreme stretching in ballet) and this had resulted in the muscles tightening up in my back and neck.

So like Brent said, I really do need to RELAX.

He prescribed me some muscle relaxant . . . which I can't take, because I am nursing.

But let me tell you I have done a 180 since the diagnosis. I am embarrassed to admit that my health is so connected with my stress levels. But every time I thought about what was happening in my back I would cry, get stiff, and feel terrible. Now I know that nothing is happening in my back beyond the pain, I feel great.

And I am relaxing. Hopefully my new mental state is enough to begin the healing process since I can't take the prescription muscle relaxant.

I don't know what is going to get rid of the sciatica, though. I am really hoping this is a case of acute - not chronic sciatica. Because I really can't drive my van until this goes away. It kills!

Feeling my age

Not too many posts lately.

I can't sit for too long without being in pain.


Driving makes it way worse I find . . . so I also am staying home unless my chauffeur is available, and he usually isn't.

I am trying to stay positive in the midst of my first over 30 health problem. It started in my leg over a month ago. Mostly a mere annoyance as I kept trying to figure out why my foot was asleep or burning and why my leg was so uncomfortable. Then it cruised on up into my rear, and I realized this was just like the sciatica I have when I am pregnant. But then about a week after that my lower back got really tight and sore. Then my upper back neck and arm started killing. Brent keeps saying I need to relax but I am just way too tight to relax.

So far I have done lots of self medicating and diagnosing. Talked to all of my friends/experts. Some say heat, some ice, some exercises, and stretching. Others lay in bed and take it easy. Brent says don't bend over, but how am I supposed to do that when I have a baby cruising around at my feet?

Following all of these at the same time is not working. So tomorrow I am headed to the Dr. to find out what I need to be doing. (My chauffeur has another jewish holiday tommorow so he can take me) I am really worried because I know this is only the beginning. I have heard too many horror stories about the hard life ahead once you injure your back.

I know I needed more empathy for people with chronic pain and that's exactly what I am gaining in this process.

I think it was ballet class. I was trying so hard to move and bend like the best of them. Why didn't some one warn me?

Off he goes!

The little guy is now on the move! It is more like dragging then crawling, but he is all over the place. First tooth and crawling- What a week for Marcus!