7 random things about me...

Ok, so sexyhouse wife tagged me to tell 7 random things about me so here goes nothing:

1. My dream job is to be a cosmetologist. My dad always said "you can be more than that" but still to this day I wish more than anything I could quit my job, go to hairschool and own my own salon.

2. I taught myself to drive a car at just 12 years old. Hey I found the keys, it's not my fault they didn't hide them good enough. Sorry mom and dad!

3. I love house/electronic music. Most would call it techno but that is a stereotypical name for it.

4. I love sleep. Thank goodness I have a very caring, giving husband who allows me to do this quite frequently.

5. I am addicted to online shopping for my kids. Check out this site for some awesome christmas toys for the kids www.youngexplorers.com. :)

6. I love salt. I would salt cereal if it tasted good. hmmm?

7. I bite my nails. I have to wear fake ones or I bite them all off. I try my hardest not to but I just can't help it!

So there you go.

Justice?

Over the weekend we learned that our neighbor had recently been released from spending the past 10 months in jail. What an uncomforting feeling seeing him outside his house. I truley have been dreading this day for the past 10 months, but unfortunately we knew it was coming.

Let me rewind a bit and tell you the story. When our neighbor was fired from his job at the post office last summer we started to suspect something wasn't right. He told everyone it was for sexual harrasement, but it wasn't long before we found out the real story. Over the Holiday Season last year he dissappeared and his wife proceeded to tell all of us neighbors he had taken a job driving long haul truck. That didn't seem odd because he had done delivery driving in the past, but she also told us he wasn't able to call his kids at all, excpet on Sunday. We all thought that seemed a bit odd. I mean since when did truck drivers get cell phone restrictions? So we did some research.

First we decided to try the Utah Sex Offender Registry. To our dismay we found his record on-line. His offense "Sexual Abuse of a Child", his registered address, the Utah County Jail. Joy. Unfortunatley I wasn't satisfied with just this amount of information because my children have been to his house, my children play with his children...and I wanted to know more. I had Nick go to the court and pull all of the public proceedings. We found out that he had sexually abused his neice over a 2 year period multiple times.

Now, what is unbelievable to me is that his wife denys he did anything wrong, and she has decided to stay with him. That is not the worse part. Her children have no idea that their dad spent the last 10 months in jail, nor do they know what he did to this little girl. I'm sorry, but the first thing I would have done when I found out was sit all of my kids down and find out what they knew or if anything had happened to them. Then I would explain what was going on so they don't learn about it through other resources and wonder why they had never been told by their own mother. Then I would divorce the guy and move on with my life.

It gets even better, during the trial the family decided that they would go easy on him because he is the sole provider for his family and so they requested that the judge put him in jail for 1 year. Yes, that's right, 1 YEAR...that's it. So, here we are 10 months later and he is a free man. I don't understand. Someone can write a few bad checks and spend their life in federal prison, but another can hurt an innocent child over and over and get out in 10 months so he can spend the Holidays with his family? Where is the justice in that? It truley makes me sick.

Success

Well the Spook Alley was a huge success. I was amazed how many people showed up. The house was full of adults and kids most of which came in their costumes. The little kids had some games in the graveyard, and got their faces painted and then we kicked everyone out to set up for the real show! Chrissy was the hostess with the mostest and let in groups of kids 2-5. Some of them came alone, some of them came with their parents, but they all left SCARED as can be!

Two of Ke'alohi's guy friends from her 5th grade class decided they would be brave and go first alone. They were almost in real tears and begging me to show them the way out about half way through. I had to coax them in to going through the rest of it. Nick and Ryan both wore masks...and would jump out randomly through the whole thing. I was the story teller and took them through the entire thing telling them the story of Bloody Mary. I had so much fun! It was worth all of the time we put into it.

Thank you so much to everyone that came and helped out! Here are some pics:

Here's the family room, we changed out the walls to old bricks and put up spider webs. This is where the story began....

This is the door to the garage/graveyard...

This is Bloody Mary's Aunt Lisa...

Nick, Me, Julie and Audrey..Julie was acutally Bloody Mary but changed into her grinch costume after the thing ended....

She cracks me up....

This was the secret hallway she took the children she would lure into her home. It was all lit up by blacklights and all the words on the walls glowed! The bathroom was a trap door behind one of the sides on this hallway...


Here's the bathroom where Julie was in the shower and jumped out with a bloody knife!

Here is the boys room. This lighting doesn't do this room justice. It was all black lighs so it was more evil. There were hanging body parts and spiders and the beds were stuffed to look like someone was in them. Audrey was in the closet with a voice changer saying "HELP US!"

This was BY FAR the coolest! They ended up in the grave yard at the end where the townsmen burned and burried Bloody Mary! This room had two fog machines, was lit up by black lights and had two strobe lights. The graves glowed and there was a flying ghost that was on a 25 foot cable and looked like he was floating!

Bloody Mary's Coffin...

more graveyard

I had to wait til the smoke cleared to take the pics. It was so foggy and fun in there!

So, I must say it was well worth the money spent, and the time put into it! HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE and thanks for being a part of our Spook Alley!!!

The fun has begun.....

It's official folks! I have started the set up of our Spook Alley! Last night I almost completed one room and it took me over 2 hours! Wow. I better get to work or I'm not going to be done in time. Good thing I have help. My mom and sister are coming, my cousin Audrey who is basically my second sister, her husband, Nick...and then Chrissy offered to help make one of the games for the little kids. So thanks to everyone for all your help!

This is going to be awesome!-----stay tuned for lots of pictures! And if you are planning on coming DON'T FORGET TO WEAR YOUR COSTUME!

I hate cars (Part 342)

Remember how I hate cars? Remember how I spent $1500 to fix my car, and it was supposed to run like a champ? Well, it is now making a noise that it didn't make before I took it in to get fixed so, today it is back in the shop yet again. I CAN'T WIN!

5 more days.....

5 more days til the SPOOK ALLEY!

Scary!

This morning on the way to work traffic slowed down on I-15, and of course we knew most likely there was an accident. When Nick and I passed the wreck we couldn't believe how bad it was, and it must have just happened because the police were barely showing up and traffic hadn't gotten too bad yet.

There were three cars involved. One of them was at the tail end with least damage, just kinda off the shoulder, but then the other two cars were pretty banged up. One car looked like it had rolled multiple times because it was smashed all the way around, and it had landed on the hood of the second car right side up. The bottom car was smashed and the front wheels of the top car were part way through the windshield. You could see several people hugging and crying on the shoulder. Man I hope everyone got out of that ok. I have never seen anything like that.

Ambria looked shocked and asked why the car was on top of the other car. I did the best I could to explain it to her and remind her that is why she always wears her seatbelt. Oh, and of course she uses the opportunity to tattle on her daddy saying "my daddy Chris didn't buckle me in once, I wanted to but he said no, and I bonked my head on the chair like this (BONK) when he stopped really fast. Man, her stories sometimes! Kids, gotta love em!

Saturday Afternoon

Well, we attempted to have the yard sale today. The last 5 Saturdays have been rainy, and cold and today really ended up being no differfent. We put up some signs last night in hopes that at least someone would show up. The morning started out a little warmer about 50 degrees and overcast but it wasn't long before we had to move everything in to the garage to prevent it from blowing away.

I was surprised how many people we had show up despite the weather being a bit cooler. I'll tell you what, the 4 years of spanish I took in school sure came in handy today~! We still have quite a bit of stuff left, but we made $180! So, not quite the success I had hoped for, but at least we got rid of some stuff and made a few dollars.

You know, although we didn't make the money I had hoped, I really did get an eye opener today and I was actually quite humbled by watching people scurry around and get excited about the things we had for sale.

There was one guy who found a pair of Nicks old Sketcher dress shoes and his face lit up! I watched him excitedly take off his pair of shoes, which were about 2 sizes to big, and try on Nick's old shoes. They looked like a perfect fit, and he seemed pleased. I sold him the pair of sketchers for $2.00. He walked away with a smile, and a pair of shoes that fit his feet.

If anything came of the yard sale today I think it was the fact that I walked away thankful that Nick and I are able to live the life we do. Sometimes I think we don't realize how blessed we are to have a nice house and be able to provide for our kids what some parents never have the chance to. Wow, what a day, and what a good feeling to be able to give some of our stuff to people who can't afford it. It really broke my heart to see how hard some of these families have it, but it made me feel good that I could help them out and give them some nice stuff.

Getting funner by the minute

We are now up to $1500 to fix the car.......Whoo hoo! Isn't this fun!

Like Mother Like Daughter...

When I was a little girl I was infactuated with Michael Jackson. Yes, I know some of you cringe at the thought, but I was- so get over it! He was so talented, such a legend, and I even truly thought he was cute! I can't tell you how many people made fun of me, and how much crap I took from it, but I didn't let that bother me, I LOVED HIM JUST THE SAME!

So, recently I have been playing a lot of his old music. It really brings me back to when I was little and brings back so many old memories (some good, some bad). Well, Ambria has really took a liking to him recently, and I hate to admit it but I LOVE IT! You see, Ambria is just like her dad, and we really don't have too too much in common. So the fact she likes him too and always wants to hear his songs makes me smile and feel fuzzy inside.

Today in the car on the way to work, after we finished listening to one of his songs, she goes "mommy, for Christmas I really want a Michael Jackson toy" and I said "what do you mean honey?" and she said "you know, like a barbie of Michael Jackson". I sat back in my chair and thought to myself "Oh great, how do I explain this to her" Maybe a visual would help:

"You see honey, when mommy liked Michael Jackson he used to look like this...."

"But now he looks like this..."

"I am not quite sure they would put out a childrens barbie of him at this point in time. Maybe for Halloween, but I'm pretty sure it might be too scary for the little ones on any other occasion. :)"

I can see baffled the look on her face now, ha ha!

Ok, this is so freakin cute!

Kayden doesn't need much to entertain himself. Just a ball and some room to run around. Check out his new favorite thing to do.


Lets Play Ball from estocks on Vimeo.

I hate cars (Part 2)

The car placed called. Of course they always have good news and bad news right?

GOOD NEWS! The guys that did the oil change on the car last week must have knocked off one of the air intake valves causing pressure to drop and the engine to stall....easy fix....little bit of labor and $77.

BAD NEWS...My barrings are going out on both front tires. Yes I know, sneaky sneaky they always find something right? But, a few months back we were told the same thing by the guys at Pep Boys but I decided at that point not to do anything about it. Not quite sure what barrings do but I guess if they went out completely basically the tires would fall off and I would crash my car and it wouldn't be fun, or cheap.

So $1023.29 later, my car should run like a champ. I am kindly excepting donations if anyone is interested. DAMN.

I hate cars.

Last night on the way home from work my car died. No warning, just dead...no power steering, no brakes, kaput. I pulled off the on ramp to the freeway and it started right back up. WEIRD, I thought. So I get on the freeway and make it about 100 yards, DIES AGAIN! Now I'm thinking ok, what the crap, no warning...not puttering..just dead. Starts up fine again. This time I make it half way to Chrissy's house before it dies for the third time.

Nick and I decide it's best to drive it to a shop in Sandy, at least while it is still starting and plus it would really suck to have it die completely on the way home with both kiddos inside. So Ryan met us at Tunex where they hooked it up to a machine to check the alternator. They were baffled. No check engine light, so no way to diagnose it. Plus its a german car so of course we get to take it to the "special" dealer.

We left it at a place called McNeils for them to test. So as of right now I don't have any idea what is going on with it or how much $$$ this will cost. Chrissy was nice enough to let us drive her minivan home last night and bring it back to her today. Thank goodness we have two cars and don't have to rent one in the meantime. But you know what really sucks, we just paid that damn car off! Of course it breaks down now right? ARGH.

To be continued......

Bummer...

We had the kids this weekend and we had plans to go to the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point, but the weather had other plans. It was fairly nice all week, cooler, but nice. Saturday was a different story. It was completely a downpour and cold. We ended up just calling it a day and playing Monopoly at home with the kids and watching Halloween Movies. How come it always seems to be nice during the week, but as soon as the weekend rolls around and we make plans things get all yucky outside? It was a pretty big bummer.

On another note, we are two weeks away from the Spook Ally and just getting ready to add the final touches. It is going to be so awesome! Oh, if anyone out there has trees in their yards that are losing their leaves, could you save them for me? Put them in a garbage bag and give me a call, I will come pick them up. I need as many as I can get for the Spook Ally!

No More Scratching!

This morning Nick and I dropped off both Cats to the vet to get declawed. I am so glad! I have been debating on doing this forever. I know it's painful for them, but they are sending us home with some kitty pain meds, so they will recover. But I am so sick of scratching. These cats have not only ruined couches, mattresses, etc...but we just got all new carpet and they roll around and scratch everything! I feel bad that they will be in pain but when it's all over it will be so worth it, and so worth the cost.

Birthdays

The boys birthdays are coming up.....that's right all three of them. Nakoa is Nov. 8, Kayden is Nov. 27 and Kolya is Nov. 29. Whew. Geez.....I got a lot of kids... In the past Nick and I have done Koa and Kolya's b-days together, but we thought this year we would have them separate. I think they have done everything together for so long that its time to make them feel individually special. You know? I mean, you would think they were twins or something.

We decided to take Nakoa to Kangaroo Zoo where they have all sorts of blow up things to jump on and slides. Then we are going to take Kolya to Fat Cats bowling alley. Two totally different birthdays! I really think they will be excited to have their OWN party this year.

I'm not quite sure what to do for little Kman yet....he's turning 1 so I'm sure he won't even know it's his birthday- but I am getting him one of those little personal 1 year cakes for him to smash and get all messy. I have always wanted to do that and I never did with Ambria. So yes, I am excited about that. :)

Back to school

Well, it's official...well almost official, I am going back to school. Once upon a time, a few years ago, I graduated with my Associates Degree. Then, I got married, got pregnant, got divorced, got married, got pregnant....lost my mind and decided...WOW, I should really finish school. Now that I am a mom of 5 and work full time, gee, that sounds like a GRANDE IDEA!

No really though, I'm going back. First class, January 7th. I think I will take something thrilling like Economics 2020..joy to the world. :) Wish me luck guys....I need it! I will feel like the old lady on campus looking at all the youngins going "HEY! -where'd you get that cool skooter!"

HA HA HA

Are you Afraid of the dark?

It’s Halloween, that’s right my dears
Its time to face your wildest fears
Come join the fun, come have a scare
At the Unpleasant Grove Graveyard
If you dare…….

Saturday October 27th
823 Apple Grove Lane
7:00-10:00pm

Bring your little ones early for a night of scary fortune telling, a walk through the Unpleasant Grove Graveyard, and spooky tales at 7:00 pm.

At 8:30 pm the real fun begins! Come prepared to scream! Let’s just say if the googly monster in the closet still scares you, you might want to sit this one out!