Happy Belated Halloween

If I don't get these pictures up, I probably won't. There is a cute story that goes with our costumes, but I'm too tired to tell it tonight. All I can say is "All Hail King Triton!"

My Mom and the kids painting pumpkins. We all got sick, so we didn't carve any and they all fell prey to teenage kids. (Mike got mad at a bunch of kids for coming by and ringing our doorbell at 10:30PM)






Sarah at her preschool party




And our family Halloween pictures. Mike was such a good sport. I had to make his skirt, I mean fins, and then piece together the rest of his costume. Oh, what he does to make Sarah happy.

Welcome Airman Starley

Last Tuesday Mike was officially sworn in as a member of the Utah Air National Guards 151st Air Refueling Wing. This is something we've wanted for so long it was the first time I could really say I had a surreal experience. I'm very proud of my husband.

The man swearing him in is Major Nate Niederhauser. Nate is Mike's Aunt's cousin and was very instrumental in Mike getting the pilot position. Nate brought Mike up to meet the other officers and really put in a good word for him. I thought it was really neat that they allowed him to do the oath. Nate was an f-16 fighter pilot before joining the Guard and switching to slower KC-135's.



Here are the words of the Oath he took:

I, Steven Michael Starley, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the state of Utah against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the Governor of Utah and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to law and regulations. So help me God.

Some other members of the Guard came to his swearing in. I got to meet a few of the men on the board and those that are in charge. Mike's commitment is 10 years after flight school, so that will be about 12 total, although he'll fly as long as they'll let him. I'm sure we'll get to know all of these people really well.


Just some fun pictures. After the swearing in the kids and I "played" air hockey and then pool until Steven fell off a chair onto the tough floor. Then we ate vending machine food. :-)

"My favorite season is here"

I started writing this on the 28th, if that's any indication of how "busy" I've been. The snow is long gone and I haven't needed a jacket in a few days.

Winter isn't my favorite season, but it is Sarah's. Yesterday Sarah was lying on my bed tired after a long sleepless night. She was very "sick" UNTIL she heard Mike say that it had snowed outside. She immediately wanted to put on her snow gear and head outside. I was taking her to the Dr, but she insisted on wearing her snow pants, boots, mittens and hat. When we got home I put Steven to bed and Sarah headed out to play. I tried to act busy, but she sweet talked me into "helping" her make a snow man. For someone that usually gets mad at Mother Nature (she yells at the wind to stop blowing) she really likes the snow. Frosty only lasted a few hours. It was fun.

One Cheap Chick

No, I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about a blogger for the Salt Lake Tribune that has a blog called, "One Cheap Chick". The writer, Lesley Mitchell, wrote a good article today with more money saving tips for the frugal. You can find her article HERE

She debunked five anti-coupon myths :-) and gave some extra websites that will help save money on our grocery bill. I'm going to admit that these past couple weeks I haven't made time for clipping coupons and comparison shopping, and it's obvious. I've exceeded my monthly budget and spent extra money when I didn't need to.

Here are some extra websites she mentioned in her article:

A full cup
Smartsource.com
Redplum.com
Money Saving Mom

Habitat for Humanity ReStore

This morning I had the opportunity to go with the kids in our Stake (about 6-10 church congregations together) to help out with a Habitat for Humanity service project, and I wanted to give a plug for what they're doing. Most people have heard about the house building, but there is so much that goes on behind the scene. In Utah Habitat for Humanity builds entire subdivisions of their homes rather than just a house here or there. So many businesses and individuals donate their time, money and resources to this cause. For example, Wells Fargo donates/pays for all the sheet rock for all the Utah houses and a roofer does roofs for the price of the supplies and donates his workers.

Today the kids helped at the soon to be opened ReStore. Habitat for Humanity has store where they sell brand new items at 50% of retail and all of the items are donated. They use 100% of the proceeds to build the homes. Buying lots is their biggest expenditure and it has been harder to get donations since the recession. TruValue just had a big expo and talked all of the vendors into donating their booth samples, which turned out to be a lot. The kids were in charge of sorting through tile that was donated. A Father/Son business decided to move to Georgia, so they sold 45 pallets of Daltile. The kids sorted the colors and discarded any broken tile. Habitat will then be able to use it or sell at a great price to the public.

Everything about today was really neat. Thirty kids gave up their Saturday morning to help a charity that helps low income families obtain affordable housing. The ReStore opens in the middle of November for anyone that wants to buy household or remodeling items for less than retail. They had some pretty cool stuff and I look forward to going when it opens.

My foul mouthed Kiddos

I can happily report that I have never sworn in front of my kids, and neither has Mike. They'll get enough of that when they grow up, so we'll keep those words out of their vocabulary as long as possible. Having said that, both our my kids have said the "F Word" at about the same time in their language development. The word is meant to be another word, yet comes out clearly as the "F Bomb" every time.

When Sarah was a little over one, to the age of two, I taught Spanish at a small private school. The superintendent collected Frogs and had a few throughout her office. Frog was the word Sarah was trying to say when she "swore." One day the super was holding a frog and Sarah looked at her and said @#%&. She looked down and asked Sarah to repeat herself, which she did. The lady then looked at me with a, "What in the heck did your child just say," kind of a look. I told her Sarah was trying to say frog, and she spent the next few minutes on Sarah's level saying "F-RR-O-G." Sarah would then repeat her by saying @^&#. You can't get mad at a kid for saying frog, no matter how it comes out, so I just worked with her and she can now pronounce FROG. :-)

A few days ago Steven started dropping the F Bomb as he tries to say TRUCK. It's closer than frog, so a little more understandable, but there are a lot more trucks to point out during the day. If you listen closely you might here an R in there, but the T is an F and the R is usually silent.

I'm only sharing this in case we have a play date and my son starts saying one of the worst words in the English language. I'm trying to work with him as well on those T's, but it hasn't worked yet. Until then, please don't judge me, I don't swear. ;-)

Smiles and tears

One of the things I love about Sarah is her wide range of emotions, and the way that she expresses them. Sometimes when she's upset I laugh because it's so cute. (other times I put her on time out)

A few days ago we were leaving and Mike told her to grab her shoes out of her closet. Here is the conversation:
Mike: Sarah, grab your shoes so we can go
Sarah: You are big, why don't you grab them for me. (not snotty, just matter of fact)
Mike: Sarah, just grab your shoes
Sarah: Grrr...this is ridiculous, I'm not your servant
:-)

Yesterday it was snowing for a few minutes. Sarah has declared winter as her favorite holiday so we got bundled up to "play" in the snow. By the time we'd gotten outside it had stopped. She broke into tears. Somehow, being a mother, I was supposed to be able to recall the snow. She then told our neighbor all about it as tears streamed down her face. The lady tried to fight back the laughs as she listened to Sarah.

This one is kind of sad. Last night after reading to Sarah she said she wanted Mike to read. He was still at school and I told her she'd be asleep when he got home. She said she'd wait up and I told her not to and that I'd send Mike in when he got home. Mike got home and accidentally fell asleep w/o saying good night to her. This morning Sarah woke up, but didn't come into our room like usual. She just stayed in her room and cried a lot. Mike went and got her and she had been crying so hard that she was sucking up air and had puffy eyes. She had woken up and realized her dad hadn't come in and read to her and started bawling. It was so sad.

To make up for it they are having a sleepover outside right now. Sarah was very proud of the bed she made for them out on the balcony. She brought out all the pillows they would need.


Now, instead of sleeping underneath her covers, or her princess sleeping bag, she sleeps in her "Dad's sleeping bag."


Speaking of kids waking up, Steven is the cutest little mommas boy ever. One morning Mike went in to get him and Steven looked at him, say no a few times and waved him away and then kept saying "Mom". At least I know I'm loved.

I should have gone to bed an hour ago, because I need the sleep, but I felt like blogging.