Happy Halloween!

The kids had a blast tonight. We went door to door with a couple of neighbors...

Ryan had his mask on most of the night, so the majority of my pictures are of my sweet little bunny...

Kaylin RAN from house to house and caught on to the concept immediately...

Many people dressed up to pass out candy and one particular mask scared the kids pretty badly. They were still talking about it at bedtime...

After Trick or Treating, I stuck to the new rule of each child getting as many pieces of candy as they are old. Ryan got four, Kaylin got two. And I got 32!

I hope everyone had a fun, safe evening!

Stretching Our Faith

I have the gift of faith. (I even believed in Santa for way, way too long; I felt so sorry for the other kids who believed the lies that their older siblings and other kids told them.) My faith is rarely tested...I know with 100% confidence that God is in control of every aspect of my life, whether or not things are going the way I think they should.

But this week, we were blindsided.

Mike was laid off. It's no surprise in this economy that people are losing their jobs, and I'm convinced it will only get worse. But for some reason, this really caught me off guard.

Yes, giving at our church has decreased this year. (To my Christian readers - please continue to tithe, even through the tough times. The church still has a staff to support and bills to pay!) Yes, our church is very large with an equally large staff. But Mike is a great employee - works smarter rather than harder, doesn't chit chat around the water cooler all day, he is a man of integrity, and he's very knowledgeable in his field. But I suppose the majority of the people on staff at our church are all of the things on that list, too.

Somehow, I just thought my husband's job was more secure. He was a part of the meetings where they tried to trim any and every area in an attempt to not have to let people go. I thought that if they had to make cuts, it would be the lower men on the totem pole. But his job is being dissolved and the group remaining in his department will now have to share his duties.

Isn't that always how it goes? It's great to be one of the people still on the payroll, but when there are layoffs, everyone suffers. The people left with their same jobs end up with more responsibilities and longer hours. All because of this horrible, stupid economy. Ugh, don't get me started.

As for me? I'm doing fine. I should say that I'm doing better. Last night, I wasn't doing so hot. I tried to hide my tears from Mike and the kids, realizing all that will be changing in the coming months. We've had a pretty sweet deal these last couple of years. Mike leaves for work at 8:25 and arrives at 8:30. He comes home every day for lunch and has to drive through 3 stop lights to get back home in the evening. The only employers between our house and our church are in a grocery store strip mall.

Now I'm wondering where God will take him next? I know He has a plan. And just like a friend said: I know this happened for a reason, I know I'm not given more than I can handle, I know many people are going through much worse, I know we will survive this and I know I will come out of it a stronger person. It's just tough, you know? It hurts my heart that Mike has to go through this again.

The last time he was laid off was just weeks after I found out I was pregnant with Ryan. His department was being transferred to California and he was given 6 months to find a new job. That was a scary time. And, of course, God provided a great position for him. I am confident that will happen again, it's just a bit unnerving.

It's also frustrating to know that in recent months, I've tightened up our spending quite a bit. What will we have to do to scale back now? Will we have to pull Ryan out of school? Sell a car? Sell a house for thousands less than it's worth? We're locked into certain commitments like our cell phones and we have pre-paid discount plans with places like our gym. So our lifestyle may not appear to change much at first...especially because we've lived very frugally for quite a while! Or so I thought. I just learned the definition of a "spending freeze."

I am proud to say that I took some time this afternoon to plan our meals for the entire month of November using only what we have in the house at the moment! I will still get the produce co-op every other week and will need to buy milk and eggs, but I think that's the extent of our grocery needs this month. We'll see if it works out.

So girlfriends (and the few gentlemen readers out there) - I need your prayers. WE need your prayers. Men put so much stock in having the ability to put food on the table and to support their families. It encompasses such a huge part of who they are as a human being and a member of society. I don't want this to get my man down. He stresses out way too easily and I want this to be a time where we pull together as a family and look back with thankfulness. I want this to stretch our faith and deepen our relationship with each other and with Christ.

And a quick, shameless plug: if my local Phoenix friends have any leads or connections to Accounting or Finance jobs (preferably in our area of town) - please let me know!

Thank you for your support and prayers. I'll keep you posted.

Holy Halloween Parties, Batman!

We usually go to one Halloween party a year, if that. This year, the invitations were out of control!

It started with a Halloween-themed birthday party...

(Ryan was Batman until we got the Spiderman costume)

Then we had the first "official" Halloween party at our neighbor friends' house...

And that night, Mike and I had a grown up party to attend. We planned on going as Hawaiian tourists, but had a surprise wardrobe malfunction that morning. I bought a package of Luau attire, or so I thought. The hula skirts turned out to be a giant table wrap for a party decoration, not a skirt. So we borrowed costumes at the last minute and ended up getting really into it...

I was the Wicked Witch of the West (check out the shoes!) and Mike was obviously the Hulk (who got a headache from not wearing his glasses all night)...

The next day was another kid's party with friends from Ryan's pre-school class last year. 70 people RSVPed to this open house...they took all the furniture out of the house, had games, food and crafts for the kids...it was kinda crazy, but really fun. Here is a picture of Ryan with some of his little former classmates...

At school today, there was a party and costume parade...

And this evening, we went to yet another party, where we had so much fun socializing that we left before we had a chance to decorate our pumpkins...

Ryan's Pre-school

This morning, I got my hands on some great pictures of my little boy playing at school. His teacher has a big, amazing camera with a telephoto lens and she's totally into photography. (bless her!) She gave me a CD of all the pictures she's taken so far this year.

Kaylin is even having fun "going to school" when I voluteer. She cried the first day she went into her "class," but I think she fell in the love the second time, because they made cupcakes. (the way to my children's hearts...) Today, they made spiders and did some painting...she loves doing projects. And they play outside a lot, where there's sand...just like the beach. Last week, she made a collage with Halloween shaped pasta. Did you know they sell that? I'm going to go see if they still have it at Cost Plus World Market to have for dinner Friday night.

Check out how much fun these kids have...I love this school!

How to make a TUTU

So did anyone else guess that this...

Was going to turn into this...

Last weekend, we went to a birthday party and someone gave the birthday girl a tutu. I was so impressed, I said out loud, "Man - I wish I could sew!" The giver-mom's head whipped around and she said, "Oh, I don't sew! There isn't one stitch on that tutu." And proceeded to tell me how to make one.

And, because I love you, I will share this precious information with you.

First, I bought a bunch of tulle. I had no idea how much I needed, so I just bought 2 and 3 yards of colors I liked. I also bought a package of elastic.

Then I googled "How to make a no sew tutu" because I couldn't remember a single thing the girl told me last weekend. I came up with this site.

Basically:

1. Cut the tulle (keeping it folded) into 6-inch strips. Don't worry about being perfeclty straight or exactly 6 inches wide because once it's assembled, no one will even notice.

2. I also cut the tulle at the fold (once I was done cutting the strips) so I could have twice as many strips for the same price. I didn't need the skirt to be leg-length.

3. Measure the elastic around your daughter's waist and cut it where the edges meet. Then overlap the material about an inch and staple it together. I used 2 staples to be safe.

4. Take a piece of tulle and wrap it around the elastic circle so the sides are even. Tie a knot. Repeat step 4 until the skirt is as full as you like, alternating colors if you want.

Tips:

- I used about 2 yards of pink and 2 yards of purple with only a few strips leftover.

- Tulle is $1 a yard at Walmart. I'm not sure how much it costs at a fabric store, but if you're near a Joann's, they will take their 40% off coupons off of fabric purchases.

- The other mom mentioned that you can also tie ribbon into the tutu...cute idea, more expense. Maybe next time.

- She also said that if your scissors are sharp enough, you can cut through several layers of tulle at a time. I forgot this tip and it still didn't take me very long to do.

This is a very frugal project. It took me about 30 minutes to cut all 15 yards of fabric into strips and another 30 minutes to tie all the knots. Quick. Cheap. Simple. Cute. What more could you ask for???

I had trouble getting Kaylin to stop twirling like a ballerina long enough to get her picture. She LOVED her new tutu!

Easy Halloween Craft Ideas

Here are some cute, easy crafts to do with the kids this week to get them excited about Halloween:

Pipe Cleaner Spiders:

- Take a large-ish button with 4 holes in it

- Weave pipe cleaner through holes for the legs

- Use black beads at the ends of the legs for feet

- Glue two googly eyes on the button

PB&J shapes:
- Make PB&J (or any other sandwich) and use large cookie cutters to shape into ghosts, bats, etc.

PB&J Jack-o-Lanterns:

- If you don't have Halloween cookie cutters, use a paring knife to cut a jack-o-lantern face out of the top piece of bread for each sandwich.
- Trim off the crusts and form into a circle, if you want

Marshmallow Frankensteins:
- Put two large marshmallows on a candy stick
- Mix melted white chocolate with green food coloring
- Melt semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips in another bowl
- Coat marshmallows with green chocolate
- Dip the "hair" of the frankenstein in the brown chocolate
- Put a straight pretzel through the top marshmallow for the "bolts"
- Use mini chocolate chips as eyes

White Chocolate Ghosts:
- Melt white chocolate first, then mix in oil

- Drop 1 tablespoon of mixture onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper

- Use the back of a teaspoon to quickly spread into a ghost

- Place a lollipop stick at the base, spinning to coat

- Add chocolate chip eyes

- Refrigerate ghosts 5 minutes, then peel off

Lollipop Ghosts:
- Take a lollipop and cover it with a Kleenex tissue
- Tie around the "neck" with a piece of ribbon
- Use a black marker to draw circles for the eyes and mouth

Peanut Butter Cracker Spiders:

- Spread smooth peanut butter between two Ritz crackers

- Insert eight straight pretzels into the middle of the sandwich part as "legs"

- Use peanut butter as glue to hold on two raisins for eyes

Popcorn Hands:

- Put one candy corn in the finger tip of a clear, plastic glove

- Fill the rest of the glove with popped popcorn

- Tie at the wrist with a twist tie

Halloween dry-run

It took an hour to get the kids dressed for our first Halloween party today. I'm so glad to have had a dry-run before the big day!!! FAMILY PHOTO TIP: I'm a huge proponent of dressing kids up several days before the "big day" to take the staged pictures. Whether it's Halloween, Christmas, their baby dedication outfit, whatever. That way, the day OF, you're not concerned with staying clean or being happy for pictures...you already have your first photo shoot to fall back on.

Kaylin was such a good sport this morning.


I "colored on" her face (which she allowed, but begged me to stop) to turn her into a bunny. Once she saw herself in the mirror, though, she was thrilled.

But the first ears were too big and kept falling off of her, so I had to dig into the Easter decorations to find her ears from last spring. (notice her tail!)

Our first "nose" didn't turn out right.

But the final transformation turned out great.

Then there's Ryan: put on costume, cut eye holes bigger so he can see, he's done. Boys are so easy.

Happy early Halloween everyone!!! (I know this looks weird...hay and a scare crow with a palm tree behind it. Just GO with it...)

Palin on SNL

Some people are such good sports. Did anyone else catch this skit?

So many questions to answer...

Has anyone noticed that I rarely "answer" questions within the comment section? Not sure why. I guess I just never know if the person who asked thought enough to subscribe to subsequent comments to get the answer. I'm not trying to be rude, honest.

But in the last few days I've had so many questions that I have to do a whole post about the answers. So here goes...

* I'm so excited to meet a few of the looky-loo ladies who came out of the shadows! (I'll stop calling you that soon, I promise) But I need more. I know many of you have visited today and read that post, but STILL didn't comment. Are you a scary stalker? Because I distinctly remember telling you to "shoo." Come on, people. Give me some comment love! I'm not to proud to beg. Blackwood, NJ, I know you're out there. Lisa isn't my only New Jersey reader, so introduce yourself, wouldja? And I know Jen isn't the only Michigan reader...there are several cities who come up in Michigan, and I'd love to "meet" you.

* For Rachael and all those who are curious: my "blogging friends" are real people I know and consider friends. That list used to be about 8 people long, but more and more people are coming to the dark side and starting blogs! I keep that list so that, if you know me personally, you can look through it and you may see someone that we know in common that you didn't realize has a blog, too. If you are a friend of mine and have started a blog and I don't know about it, please give me the site address! I'd love to take a peek and add you to the list.

The "blogs I read" list is much more extensive. That is there to share the most recent blog posts of the "blogging friends" list plus people that I've met in blogland that have never met personally (and likely will never meet) plus the higher traffic blogs that I follow, like Money Saving Mom and Simple Mom. I just realized that you should be on both and are on neither...sorry Rachael! I haven't updated the list in a while. I'll do that tomorrow and you'll see yourself on both.

* Okay Carrie, to satisfy your curiosity, Jessica was right. The mystery project is that I'm making some tutus. Don't worry: all of those colors aren't going into the same tutu! I'll make a couple with different colors for Kaylin and a few for birthday gifts, I'll post all about it when I'm done. Today I only got through the first couple of steps before I was stopped by the fact that I needed to measure the waist size of my sleeping daughter! Unfortunately, I guess I can't do everything during naptime.

* Chandy, it was so fun seeing you tonight. I now have to try QT donuts. There has to be a QT closer than a Krispy Kreme...they're on every corner!

* Rachel left a comment (I'm not sure which Rachel you are!) about Winstead's being better than Krispy Kreme. GIRL! That job across from Krispy Kreme that I mentioned was at Winstead's! I worked there, sporting that hideous green 50s diner dress, all through high school and college. (when I was home from K-State) I would die for a hot fudge shake and a single with pickle, mustard and ketchup right about now. Well, not RIGHT NOW...it's midnight for heaven's sake...

* My mom said she almost sent my post about my Krispy Kreme excitement (the first one) to the Krispy Kreme company. *humph* I think she needs to send them the second post to let them know that they need to make sure there are enough original glazed donuts to go around on a Friday morning! (I'm kidding, Mom - please don't!)

* I can't believe how many of you moms-of-boys out there deal with the pee issue. I went to a huge women's event at my church tonight and was told several times from friends that their bathrooms smell like pee, too. Moms, this is an epidemic. We need to teach our boys how to pee IN the toilet, otherwise they'll turn into MEN who don't know how to pee IN the toilet! I'm just sayin'...

* Finally, thank you for all of your encouragement and comments about my darker hair! Mike actually mentioned tonight that he's really getting used to it and starting to like it. I think I'm going to try again to go darker this weekend. (not sure I'll have time...the schedule is packed) I'm hoping that brown will color better over brown than it did over blonde. I'll keep you posted.

They were calling to me...

I feel jipped. Yes, I took the kids to Krispy Kreme today and YES it was late in the morning. On "everyone brings donuts to work" Friday. But who would have thought they would be OUT OF the Original Glazed donuts at 10:30am??? Apparently, word spread of their re-opening.

I sat there in the drive thru, debating about whether to return tomorrow. To me, their assorted donuts taste like all the other donuts in the world, but their HOT original glazed donuts...whoa, mama.

But the kids had never experienced Krispy Kreme, so I bought some. Ugh, what a waste of calories. I did feel a fraction better when I saw that they have 0 trans fats. Interesting that a product loaded with saturated fat, tons of calories and the equivalant of a 5 lb bag of sugar boasts that they have 0 trans fats. But good for them, I guess.

As usual, Ryan could only eat one.

Kaylin scarfed hers down, no problem.

This whole experience was disappointing. I didn't get my hot, glazed donuts. And that this place is a little drive-thru only, wanna-be kiosk location where they don't even make the donuts on site. It was like buying them at the car wash. I envisioned the whole thing in my head: the kids would stand on the little step stools and watch the donuts going through the machine, seeing how they are glazed, watching them on the conveyer belt, the sample lady would hand them each a free donut while we waited...but no. What a bummer.

Serves me right for wanting donuts when I was JUST complaining about my waistline to Mike the other day. And we are entering a party-packed pre-Halloween weekend...someone had better have some apples lying around so I don't eat all the candy!

Moving on...I bought some supplies for a very exciting project I'm hoping to get to this weekend. Anyone wanna guess what I'm doing?