Halloween Day 2008

The boys were out of school on Halloween day. They helped me run errands. I took them to Inkleys so Eric could take thier photo for me. Each year he sets up a Halloween scene, and takes photos. It has become a tradition.
Before school started this year I went shopping with some neighborhood friends in Park city. We had a blast! We decided that we would buy all of our kids matching shirts for a Halloween gifts. The Hardy, Ellis, Jones, Ramsey, Mecham, and Gordon kids all had these shirts. (22 kids total)---We need to get a photo of them all together in these shirts girls!
Well, there it is. The Gordon kids traditional Halloween photo 2008.

Lessons learned at FHE

Our family has been doing a lot better at having FHE lately. We have loved it. It is so fun to see what the kids know and feel. However I wonder....did we wait to long to start. Last Monday Jaron was in charge of the lesson. Our activity was planned. We had been "Booed", so we needed to deliver goody plates to at least 2 neighbors. As I was helping Jaron decided what he wanted the lesson to be on...Faith, Babtism, Repentance, etc, his eyes lit up on "Holy Ghost."
Jaron: "Ya, Mom! That's what I want to do! The Holy Ghost for Halloween!"
I could quickly see where this was going. So I called in reinforcements.
Me: "Sean, Jaron wants to have the lesson on the holy ghost."
Seans reply: "Great."
Me: "Do you really think that that is appropriate for the week of Halloween?"
Sean: rolling his eyes at me "YES!"
Jaron: moving towards Sean with his arms outstreched and fingers wiggling "OOOhhh, I'm the holy ghost...Oohhh! "
Me: "Well, you approved it!" *smile*

That night at the end of our Holy Ghost FHE lesson. Emily informed us that when Jesus was babtised, the Holy Ghost decended in the form of a DUCK. I knew it was a bird, but I always thought it was a DOVE. Good thing we are having Family Home Evening! Sounds like we need a lot of clarification!

Happy HOWLoween Emily!

Today Emily had her preschool Halloween Party! They trick or treat to the parents, and put on a little program. They do 5 little pumpkins and dance "The monster mash". It was so cute. Tammy does such a wonderful job! I am so happy that she gets to go to Tammys preschool. She loves Mrs. Tammy and all the cute little kids. She always comes home so happy.

Emily was so funny today, because she wanted to be Batman! I just couln't send her as the only girl superhero. I figured the witch costume was a good compromise. It was unfrilly, and not a princess. Plus I was cutting 10 minutes before--no frilly apron, very little along the neck, no bows etc....

Sweet little Emily was a good sport. She tried to participate in the program for a while. But had daddy hold her because she had a sick stomach. When we got home, she got a temperature, and took a little rest. She has just started whining, so I better go hold her.

7 Facts about me

Here are the rules:

1.Link to the person who tagged you and post these rules on your post. (I don't really know how to do this, but I will try)

2.Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3.Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4.Comment to the people you've tagged and let them know they've been tagged.



Alright then, here I go......



1. I have skydived and bungee jumped! **Bungee jumping is worse, you have to worry about going down, AND going UP!**


2. I love to sing, BUT I am not too good:)

3. When I am shopping, I am the cheapest person in the world.

4. I love garlic. Pickled garlic, roasted garlic at Johnny Carinos, and Buddys salad!


5. I am a momma bear...Don't mess with my cubs!

6. I love to organize events, but my personal paperwork is a mess!

7. I have never been a runner...EVER! But in my mind I run all the time (like in marathons and stuff), and I LOVE the feeling!

Okay, so those are 7 things about me. Am I just too weird? Can we still be friends? Now I want to hear about you so I can decide if I can be friends with you! Just kidding....No really take the tag challenge!

Memories

I thought this looked like fun so I posted a few memories on a couple of my friends blogs who are doing this and decided to try it on mine.

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2.Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog then you are a party pooper...remember, every party needs one and that is why I invited you! Again...no pressure :)

Poky Pride Never Dies!

Poky Pride Never Dies. This is true. It is funny how we can still feel like we belong in High School. Whenever I am at an event when the Indianettes do their War dance, I still get chills. When I drive by Poky the words "We are loyal to you Poky High..." still come to mind. When I hear the word Highland I still get a little tense. Ya, I know that as an adult I should totally not be admitting to this. Friday night was the 2008 Blue and Black Bowl. Blue for Poky, Black for Highland. We live in the heart of Highland boundries. We moved from the heart of Poky boundries plus I am an alum. In our neighborhood we have former star Highland athletes and women who lead the Highland cheerleaders, not to mention the youth who currently attend.
Jason Ramsey coaches Poky defense and Kim, Tiffany and I all went to Poky. Our kids LOVE Poky, and we joke about how we will have to move so our kids won't go to Highland. Kim decided it would be fun to have a tailgate party before the game and paint faces, and paint hair. It was pretty funny, because the Ellis' both went to Highland, but were good sports and sat with us at the game. Their kids of course like Highland. When they were painting faces, Kymball said: Can you write "highland" across my forehead? Tiffanys daughters looked shocked and said "Ummmm, NO!"

Yes, I did let them put blue and red bows in my hair. (I totally would have let them use paint too, but I was the only adult who even did the bows---didn't TOTALLY want to stand out!) The kids all looked adorable! We had so much fun. Tiffany and I cheered like we did in high school. And all of us were good fans for the first quarter. At half time it was way past bedtime for us old fogies.
It brought back so many fun memories. It also brought back bruises on the back of my calfs! It was wonderful to see the kids have so much fun together. I loved seeing them all dressed up, filled with pride and excitement like I had. And yes, I do have a lot of crow to eat! Word of warning...trash talk is totally overrated....especially when your team does not win!

Last note: You feel really old when you are in the womens bathroom and they say "ladies first" to you....for crying out loud!!!!

Why get a Jack-o-lantern when you have a Jaron

The tooth fairy has visited the Gordon home 2 times this week! Jaron had Mrs. Welch pull his tooth on Thursday, and last night I pulled the second one! (I feel pretty cool, because I have never pulled a tooth before.)

So tonight as I was doing homework with him I looked at him and thought "Man, Jarons smile looks just like a jack-o-lantern smile!" Gotta love Jaron--he has a great personality!

A Halloween Story

Saturday, the kids and I were able to get the Halloween decorations up! Sean reminded me of a story that happened a couple Halloweens ago. Sean has a great schedule now, but a few years ago it was pretty crazy, and he was gone ALOT.

I got the bug to put out Halloween decorations. I was probably pregnant with Emily, so it was just me and the boys. When Sean landed, he got a message from me in tears. By the time he called, I was fine, but apparently earlier that evening when I was putting out the decorations, I got spooked. They scared me so bad that I hid out in the bedroom with the doors locked! I guess I didn't want those decorations to come get me! Hahaha.

I am having a great day

Man! Do I ever have some wonderful friends! I didn't realize that I was sounding so negative last night. I was concerned, and when you add tired into the mix, then I guess it gets a little bit messy.
I have been so excited for the great info that has been coming out this week about saving money. I guess I get my enjoyment of bargains from my Grandma Gibson. My uncle Kurt said "If shopping were an Olympic sport, Mom would definatly get the gold medal. Not only that, but she would get it at the bronze price!"
I can't claim to be at that level yet, but I have been known to brag about a bargain or two! hahahaha (Those of you who spend time with me know that I am constantly bragging about getting things 90% off!)
I am thrilled, because Sean has been gone this whole week, and will be home tonight! Yeah! Happy Friday!! :)

Being a mom is not for the faint of heart!

The reason is that your heart is so full multiple times a day! Sometimes you are so full of happiness, that you feel it will burst! Then on the flip side, it breaks constantly. Not only does your heart ache for yourself, but most painful is seeing those you love in pain. Even if your child is crying because their ice cream melted too fast, it brings on a flood of emotion and concern.
Then there is the disappointment that comes from their mistakes. Then of course the huge guilt that comes for YOUR mistakes!
Perhaps the biggest pain comes in pushing them thru their struggles. You know that they HAVE to do something incredibly difficult for them in order to overcome it.
Then of course there are other times when we have absolutly NO CLUE what to do, and you just have to ride it out.
I am currently riding the motherhood coaster! I have no clue of what to do, yet remain hopeful. I think I will retreat to being a child. Tonight I plan on turning my concerns over to Heavenly Father, knowing that he loves me and my entire family. I don't know if he is going to plow ahead thru my troubles for me, or if he will be the ever loving Heavenly Father standing behind me PUSHING me in the right direction.
I guess it is true, we may be a parent, but we will always be a child!
I am so greatful to be surrounded by the best people in the whole world. Have a great day! :)

My crazy husband

For those of you who may not know me well, I want to preface this a little. Sean and I have been married for 11 years. I am happy to say that I am truly married to my best friend. As such, one of our favorite things to do together (get your mind out of the gutter, the is a G rated blog!) is to laugh together. Aside from our children, our greatest source of humor comes from eachother.

Sean has been a pilot for over 15 years. He grew up in the bay area, and for our first Christmas together we flew to California to visit family. One of the sites he took me to was the Golden Gate Bridge. I thought it was odd that everyone kept teasing him. They were pushing at him, and our nieces were looking over the edge, and Sean would get really mad at them. His oldest brother Curt is a real tease. Apparently Sean is totally AFRAID OF HEIGHTS! My man-of-steel pilot husband is afraid of heights!

Who would have imaginged that a pilot would be afraid of heights! Well, yesterday I got this photo of him standing on a suspension bridge. Apparently this is the WORLDS highest suspension bridge! (Don't ask me where it is, I can't even keep track of where he goes anymore!) lol

Reasons to be prepared!

Okay, so you all know that I have been totally freaking out about food storage lately. The following is an e-mail my friend Cami Ellis forwarded to me. It was friend of a friend who is living in Texas dealing with hurricane Ike.

Dear Friends:
Just to let you know that we are doing well. We have a 6'x6'hole in our roof, no electricity or running water, Trees downeverywhere. However, because we listened to the counsel of our Prophet we are prepared. In fact it seems to me that it's only the members ofthe church who seem to be calm, prepared, and helping one another withtrees in roofs, flooding, etc.
There is a POD or Point of Distribution in Tomball where we live. Thereyou get water and ice IF you have enough fuel to wait in the 3 hourlines. We don't have to do that because we have 3 full water barrels, 75juice bottles filled with water, and our pool which is dirty but we useit to flush.
It is very difficult to get gas. Police guard the stations when fuel isdelivered and you might wait half a day to get up to the pump just tohave them say, "Too bad, we are out".
I am grateful that we have a generator. We run it 4 hours a day to keepour fridge and light. I am grateful that we have had fuel for it. Youcan't even buy gas containers as they are rationed. We can only buy breadonce a week and are limited to 2 loaves at a time. Water is rationed by thecase at the grocery store. 3 cases per family.
The ATM machines do not have power. For the past 6 months I have stashed small bills away because I have had such a feeling of foreboding. Wehave cash because of that. LISTEN TO THE SPIRIT. Get cash in small billsbecause the stores can't make change and credit and debit cards oftendon't work. I had to pay 5 dollars more for an item because theycouldn't make change for me. PHONES ONLY WORK OCCASIONALLY.

Believe it or not...I have not had a bath in 4 days, Today was the firstday I got to wash my hair with pool water. I haven't fixed my hair in aweek!!! It just doesn't matter anymore. We can not do laundry becausewe don't have water. So, we wear our clothes until they are literallydisgusting. When we do finally get water we will have to boil it since itis contaminated. I am grateful for my parents. When we got low on generator fuel theydrove 45 minutes to help us. They filled up their cans and brought us 10gallons of fuel which kept us going until this morning at 6:00 am whenwe finally found some gas.

A prepared Family and a loving extended family is the key to survival andmaking it through right now. I know that my parents would drive to theend of the earth to help me and it's nice knowing they are there. I knowthat I would do the same for my children. I want all of you to know that I have such a testimony of following thecounsel of our living prophet. There really is safety and peace in yourheart if you are prepared. Please get your generators, 5 gas cans fullof gas, canned goods, baby items, baby wipes to bathe, and all thewater you can store...even if you have to trip on it in your home. Haveyour lanterns, crank flashlights, tarps, rope, etc.. ready to go becauseyou never know when it will be your turn to endure the test. It'soverwhelming, but it's going to be ok eventually. I have a home, I havefood, I have water, because I listened to the counsel of the prophet. Please make sure you do the same. It's time to have your life in order. Tomorrow may be too late.

I know that if we are prepared, we have nothing to fear. I am so greatful to be a member of the church and have a living prophet of God. We have been warned to be prepared (not freak out like me) and I know that we will be blessed from our obedience. I loved the tip about water and money in small bills. Thanks for all the motivation and gentle reminders !