Missing Items

There are elves or thieves that have invaded my home and stolen things that are precious... and not so precious but needed.

First... Ella's shoes. I don't like buying the kid cheap shoes because they give her blisters and fall apart. So we spend the money to make sure our kid is well dressed. But for some reason... one half of each pair is disappearing. We've searched high and low, but the search continues. Who would want these? A Hogwarts house elf? Who knows. All I know is I have to go out this afternoon and drop more $$$ on shoes for this beautiful girl of mine, who unfortunately like me, loves shoes.



Next... my baby sling. I spent good money on this, used it once... and it magically disappeared. I have a good guess where it might have gone, but I don't like to accuse unless I have enough proof. The point is... I could really use it right now. Claire is at the point where she doesn't want to be put down and not much is getting accomplished around the house.


My Coach perfume, my favorite fragrance. Not cheap. It too has "magically" disappeared. Where do these things go? I keep it out of arms reach of my children, and hidden... so they couldn't have done it... but did they? Have I looked hard enough?



Worst of all... and I'm sorry I don't have the pictures of these next two things that mean the most to me.

Ella's kindergarten pictures have disappeared. They turned out so well, and she is so beautiful in them... I want her to be able to look back years from now and look at those pictures and remember just how much fun kindergarten was. Yes, I know can reorder. But where did they go? How do things just walk away? I don't want to blame it on my children because growing up I got a lot of that... "the kids did it." When in actuality it wasn't us (or me.)

Probably the most painful for me to think of is my wedding china. Exactly one year after we moved in to this house I went to look for it, and couldn't find it anywhere. The crystal was there.. but the china is nowhere to be found. Jared and I have searched everywhere. My parents have searched their home. I think of the thousands of dollars these dishes are worth, but my heart aches most when I think of their sentimental value. Wedding gifts, my china... that I wanted to have for decades to come... to someday give them to my daughters. Just writing about it I tear up. Jared says, "They'll turn up." But how? And where? We've looked everywhere!

Does this happen to everyone? Do things just go missing and never show up again? It seems to be happening to me all at once. Or am I just losing my mind? (Don't answer that!)

Anyhow... I send out this message to the cosmos of missing items... "Please, please, please return the things that are most precious to me."

Fall Update

I've been catching some flack for not posting frequently enough on my blog... which is probably right. But hey, I'm a buy mom with a busy church calling. That's my excuse anyways.

So I'll kick off this fall update with Halloween. Jared's parents and his sister Leanne came out this year to help us celebrate all the candy eating. Of course the girl's cousin Jacob was there... but there were some extra guests too! Leanne brought her boyfriend Gus and his two cute kids Gus and Noellia. The kids all got along great and had a blast.

For some reason we don't have any pictures of that... Jared is the camera-carrying guy in the family so I blame him. But all of us had a great time swimming Friday night, and then Saturday we went to the church's fall festival that I was responsible for planning. There were games, prizes, more candy, a cake-walk, and a chili cook-off that Jared was to help judge. I made chili for the first time in my life. I don't like chili. I don't eat chili. But my chili won an award. Now some may argue that was because Jared was helping to do the judging. But I think after having to eat more than 13 flavors of chili he could care less who won. He just wanted it over with. He and the Bishop were literally sweating in the kitchen taking bite-after-bite.

Family had to leave Sunday morning so it was just us for trick-or-treating. Ella did have a friend Nicole join them as they made their way around the neighborhood and picked up their goodies.

So... maybe a little weird, but this year Ella didn't want to be a princess or a ballerina. She wanted to be a vampire. Truth is, she saw the costume at the store and liked the dress. This is her best impression of being a scary, blood-sucking creature. That smile isn't fooling anyone.

Abbigail was the adorable Jessie from Toy Story. Now every time she watches the movie or sees the commercial for Toy Story 3 she screams, "That's me, that's me!" She was very cute, though the only boots we had for her to wear were rubber, pink, polka-dot rain boots. Yes, we live in Texas. No, we don't own boots.

This is the group that the girls went out with, including some dads. Abbigail, Ella, Nicole and Ashlyn. Four very cute girls.

And of course, there isn't an event that doesn't involve some sort of tears from Ella. Dad accidentally bumped her with his flashlight. As you can see... Abbigail is already enjoying a sugar rush from her stash that is now well out of arms reach on the top of the refrigerator.

Tarantulas

This part of Texas is known for some of it's creepy crawlers: scorpions, rattle-snakes... and lots and lots of spiders. We are constantly getting the house sprayed for spiders because they just don't seem to go away.

Well guess what, Borger is in the middle of the Tarantula migration path. I don't care what anyone says... these so-called "harmless" "cute" "fuzzy" spiders have no business coming near my home. But this guy showed up one Saturday and stuck around for most of the day. My mom even told me that this is one of the smaller ones. My skin crawls just thinking about it.

Fortunately this was the only one we saw around our house. I'm sure there were more, but out of sight out of mind, right? Abby and I did see some on our walks and she kept trying to encourage the spiders to follow us home, but mom was too fast. Let us hope these over-grown arachnids made it to where they were headed and we don't have to deal with them for at least another year.

Finally Safe

When we first moved in to our home (more than a year ago) there were no spindles between the wall and the banister. Tell me, what kind of code does that pass? A three foot gap anyone could fall through? So it has been one of our many to-dos around the house. (In addition to painting, new light fixtures, new kitchen counter-tops, new carpet, re-stain the hardwood.... all when $$$ allows.)

So my ever-so-handy husband spent a weekend with my very helpful dad (THANKS DAD!) cutting the spindles, sanding the spindles, and painting the spindles. We could have bought the spindles ready made, but at $5 each for 18 stairs the project was getting expensive. I was all for the expensive project, but Jared assured me he could do it himself.

I have to admit... I am quite impressed. He did a good job, and all for under $200. Now I don't have to worry every time the girls walk up and down the stairs. (Unless of course they decide to wear my high-heels around the house.)

Artsy Fartsy Jared

We have been trying to create some art for a feature wall in our home. We've decided to do black and white images of the girls (Claire is missing) so Jared got creative with some old wooden picture frames.




Abbigail had no clue what her dad wanted to do. She thought he wanted to play some sort of hula-hoop game with the frame and kept trying to drag it down to her waist.
But Jared was able to capture a few great images of our crazy 2-year-old.





Taking a picture of Ella is always easy. She is always ready to strike a pose. She flashes that adorable smile and gives you her most "steamy model" look. Who knows where she learns this stuff?

In some photos we caught her a little off guard and she demanded we delete them. For instance this one was allegedly deleted. She says she doesn't look "hot" in the frame. For Pete's sake... she is 5! Who is teaching her what hot is or isn't?



For some reason this photo of Abbigail reminds me of a criminal line-up. Perhaps it has something to do with the shadows and that far-off stare. Hopefully not a precursor to our years ahead.


Despite all Jared's efforts... we still haven't created that feature wall. Besides... it would be no feature without Claire up there.

End of Fall Soccer

Okay... so maybe (and I say maybe because I don't want to ruin future chances) but I'm not so sure Ella is cut out to be a soccer star. She loves being out there on the field with her friends... and the kid has some wheels, but on the sidelines she is dancing, singing... and having as much fun as possible. Exactly what she should be doing.

The Blueberries had a great fall season and we can't wait to pick it up again during the spring. Believe it or not, it is getting too cold in Texas to have an early morning game. So, we'll spend the winter working on Ella's dribbling skills, run her through some suicide drills, possibly some 8 mile runs... whatever it takes to make her the champion soccer player her father has always wanted!

Until then, GO BLUEBERRIES!!!!!