At our house AGAIN?!

Could not resist sharing this.

Yes, I am aware of the serious lack of attention my poor lonely blog has been receiving. Way too much life taking up time. Stay tuned though, I have lots to share. Birthday, baptism, new pet.....hopefully this week. :)

Is this guy in my house?!

I love the comic strip Baby Blues....almost as much as Calvin & Hobbes. I find so many of these strips that, I swear, I think I have a hidden camera in my house that this guy is getting his material from. This one is especially fitting since we've just visited our dentist, and since then, Jared has become a tad bit obsessive about flossing.

Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives

Ron and I enjoy watching this Food Network show. Most of the places Guy Fieri visits are too far away for us, but it is fun to see some of the really odd food sometimes shown!

We have been excited to see him visit the SLC area a couple of times, and have had to go to a couple of the places after hearing about their menus. The first place was Lone Star Taqueria, found in the Fort Union area. Very good, very worth it, awesome yummy authentic Mexican food. Tamales and fish tacos.....that's all you need to know.

We took our second adventure out to Ruth's Diner. The famous Diner in Emigration Canyon that's been around since the 30's. It started out located in an old train dining car, which is still there, but has had quite a bit of square footage added to it. We were lucky enough to be seated in the old train car. This place has the BEST biscuits I have ever eaten...ever. Ron got an order of the biscuits and gravy for us to share...I could've died happy right then. We went after Ron's first post-op eye appointment, so almost lunch time. I got soup and a half sandwich, both were good....I'm always a sucker for a turkey sandwich that has cranberry sauce on it! Ron got a fabulous omelet with crab, avocado, and smothered in hollandaise sauce. My, oh my....not a thing to complain about with that! I'd recommend this place anytime. I might have to get a season pass to the Zoo so I have a reason to visit Ruth's a few more times. ;)

A little shot Ron took with his phone of Ellie and I in our dining car booth.


**Since I mentioned Ron's eye, I figured I should give a little update....that last appointment went well, everything is looking good. After reviewing his ultrasound again and taking another look at his eye, they are thinking that what they thought was a macular hemorrhage is actually an old solar burn. At some point Ron looked too long at the sun and burned the back of his eye. Another reason to always listen to your mother. When she tells you not to stare at the sun because you'll go blind, she isn't kidding! But no, Ron isn't going blind....the doctor was quite pleased with how everything is healing. :)**

Now go eat!

Halloween fun?!

Nicole's wig sort-of worked(?!), and Jared decided he needed some make-up too, in the form of scars....so I guess that means he switched over to a not very good ninja for his costume! :)

I have to admit...I've decided that Halloween on Saturday is not my favorite. Because it means two days of Halloween, which means two+ days of cranky, overtired, and sugar-wired kids. Between school in costumes, class parties, parades, a family party last night, and the joy of trick-or-treating tonight....yeesh! I'd had it today, and I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be dicey as well before we have a full recovery. :)

But on the bright side of today, we got the pumpkins thawed, gutted, and carved with plenty of time to even get to Costco this afternoon - because no Saturday is complete without a trip to Costco. The weather warmed up nicely, and more than we expected, so the kids just had a warm layer on underneath their costumes and didn't have to wear coats like I thought would happen. We trick or treated ourselves silly, and ended the evening at the "Haunted Creek".

We have some neighbors that back up to a creek that runs through our neighborhood, and for years they have spookified-up their backyards and the creek-bed that is dry this time of year. They place candles around to light the path, and build a few campfires for warmth. The big trees and fallen leaves add to the ambiance and they include some of the older kids and teens in the neighborhood to help out. Ron had been with Riley a few years ago, but I had never gone. This year, we asked the younger kids if they were interested in checking it out and they were feeling enthusiastic about it. As soon as we got there Ellie was freaked by the strobe lights and spooky music at the entrance, so Ron took her home. Jared got nervous once we got in the backyard, but stuck it out. They even freaked me out a bit with the box that was buried in the creek-bed....with someone in it frantically screaming through a plexiglass window to let them out....ugh! You had to walk right over it on top of them! I was feeling some serious sympathy claustrophobia with that one. The very end of the experience ends with walking through the tunnel under the road that the creek normally flows through. They have it boarded up and say it's an abandoned mine. Then you are asked if you want it to be really scary, a little scary, or not at all....Jared was ready for not at all, so we just walked through the dark passage with a strobe flashing and found a guy at the end with a "Jason" mask and a motorcycle. I found out that if you want it really scary, the guy actually starts up and rides his motorcycle right at you in the tunnel! Nice....glad my kid was with me and he chose not scary! :)

Here's a couple of little video clips Ron took of our night....one is of the kids as we were leaving, and the other is our hilarious and fun-loving neighbor really getting into Halloween....he challenged Ellie to a "dance-off" since they were both ballerinas and this is what we got:




(He only let Ron video this after we told him we wouldn't put it on facebook....we didn't agree to anything about twitter or blogs! BWA-HA-HA-AH-HA!!!!)

Costumes, Round 1a

As I mentioned, Ellie decided this morning that she was done being a flower princess, which is what she wore to her dance lesson and her Joyschool parade. She went back to her original ballerina costume. This costume was actually Nicole's dance performance costume from last year, and ever since Nicole was done with "Little Mermaid" this past June, Ellie has deemed it hers and loves to play dress-up in it. So my plan for Halloween was to get some sparkly shoes for her to wear with it and call it good....until she changed her mind the 1st time and found the flower princess costume. Needless to say, and because she is spoiled, I was a bit stressed out when she announced the last minute 2nd change of plans. I was happy to find out her thick white tights still fit from last winter (it's going to be a cold Halloween this year!) and even happier when I ran to Target and found the very last pair of silver sparkly shoes in her size were on sale for $9! We did a little face paint and glittering, and viola, Ellie the Ballerina:





I should probably put her hair up in a bun for the real ballerina effect...maybe tomorrow. Not sure what the deal with the tongue is....too much excitement? And yes, she is still going to freeze tomorrow night. Not many people will know what she is all bundled up in a hat, coat, mittens, and most likely her snow pants!

Oh, and while at Target I found a kid size geisha wig on sale for $5....I got it for Nicole to make her look a bit more complete with the black poofy geisha bun look...it is hilarious!

Costumes, Round 1

The kids were able to wear their costumes to school today...poor teachers! I honestly think they should get hazard pay for dealing with a room full of over-excited kids all day, and then the sugar rush of the afternoon halloween parties?!

I scurried around yesterday getting the rest of the "stuff" for the kids costumes. Had to get make-up for Nicole the Geisha(and wish I'd gotten it earlier to practice it before this morning, but she was excited about how it turned out, so I'm not going to worry about it.) I even had to make a quick run to Panda Express for chopsticks for her bun. I realized as I was resizing the pictures and posting them on facebook that we completely forgot about a fan. I couldn't find one at the store, so I was going to see if she wanted to make one....oops! I don't think she even thought about it though. I had to get both of them some warmer clothes to wear under their costumes as it might get into the 40's today....as the high. Jared was not happy about having to wear sweats under his costume since he now looked like a "puffy" ninja! Better than freezing though!

Ellie has announced that she is no longer going to wear her flower princess costume as she is pictured in the posts below. She now wants to be a ballerina, which was the original costume she was going to wear....sigh. Oh well, it just isn't right if they don't change their mind the day before, is it?!

Here they are before I schlepped them off to school....I'll post the new Ellie costume later!

I'm a Mean Old Witch With a Hat....

Hey, I'm not talking about myself! Sheesh....what are you people thinking?!

Well, at least most of the time I'm not wearing a hat.... ;)

But I digress:

Today was Ellie's Joyschool Halloween parade and program. It was short and sweet, and the kids thought it was great!

Dancing Princess

Ellie is taking a dance class this year at DanceMakers Studios. She loves it! It will be fun to see what she can do later this year in her performances....watching 3 year olds dance is always good for some entertainment!

This past week the dancers were allowed to wear their Halloween costumes to class. My friend was there and took some cute pictures of the girls that I need to share! (**Thanks Christiana!**)

Cap'n Ron the Pirate, Part deux

Back in July, I blogged here about Ron having a vitrectomy. I mentioned there that his left eye had the same problem that he would most likely have fixed. So last Tuesday, that's what we did. Since there were some small retinal tears that required some laser repair in the first one, it took a bit longer before he experienced a full recovery and a return to good eyesight, and we wanted to wait until that eye was seeing well before the other one went out of commission for a while!

So last Tuesday came with excitement on his part to not have anymore visual impairments in either of his eyes. Surgery went well, no retinal tears were found in this eye, so it was just a straight forward vitrectomy. Cap'n Ron came back from surgery, recovered quickly, and we were off to pick up the kids from school!



The next day took us back to the doctor for his patch removal and a check out of the eye, which went well. Ron was happy to have the floaters gone and now just waiting for a return to full vision and, for anyone who has seen him up close, waiting for the white of his eye to clear up as well....it isn't white after surgery, it's all red and traumatized. It freaks people out, as well it should, it isn't pretty!

Unfortunately, we hit a little glitch Sunday when he noticed that he could see a "floater" in there again....which should be gone! So Monday he called and spoke with the nurse who kind-of freaked him out a little. She didn't come out and tell him he should be seen, but when he mentioned he was going to CA the next day, she told him if he saw any changes in his vision while there, he needed to get on a plane and come home to be seen....so when he told me that, I asked why he didn't get an appointment for the next day BEFORE he went to CA? So he called the nurse back, and she was happy and relieved to get him an appointment that morning. (I'm still not sure why she didn't just do that to begin with!)

So yesterday, Ron saw an associate of the Dr. that did his surgery, and sure enough, there is a floater in there again...They aren't sure if it got left behind from the surgery and then moved into his line of vision or developed after. But a little more concerning is the macular hemmorhage that the Dr. found. It is small, but not a good thing. They took some pictures of it, and even did an ultrasound of his eye...didn't even know that was something they ever did! They are just waiting right now to see if it resolves on it's own, which is what we are hoping for. He has another appointment Monday with the Dr. that did the surgery, so we'll get more answers then hopefully. I'll keep you updated!

And so it begins......

**9:30 PM update: The lawn is no longer green with flecks of snow. It's covered with a good inch and more falling.**

The view out the front & back of our house a couple of hours ago. Sigh. I haven't even cleaned out the flower beds. Not that I didn't know this was coming, I just haven't felt the need desire to do yard work recently this year. Perhaps we should have carved those pumpkins last night. They are going to be frozen now! Yes, I see that the hummingbird feeder is still hanging up. I can safely say that there will be no more hummingbirds this year. Not that they didn't figure out a long time ago that I was done filling the feeder.... ;) Ron is about to catch a plane for San Diego/Los Angeles. I'm serious. He comes back Friday, when it will finally warm back up into the 50's. How convenient. ;) I made sure the furnace worked this morning though before I let him leave us here in the frozen tundra.

I told the kids they should be Eskimos for Halloween. They'll find out on Saturday that they should always listen to their mother.