Gratitude (Day 3)

Day 3-

I'm grateful for my can opener.

I'm being serious. All the things I have chosen for this month I have given serious thought about. They are all things that I am grateful for on a regular basis.

Here's a little bit of a sad story.

When I was single and the mother of two very adorable children I was pretty poor. I was a full time student living off of student loans. I didn't have much but I was very grateful that I had the opportunity to go to school (mostly online) and still afford to stay home with my little ones and watch them grow and change everyday. I was and am very grateful that I didn't have to go to work and put my kids in daycare.

Anyways, back to the story, I was pretty poor. We still had all our basic needs met and some extras for fun but not much for luxuries.

One of those luxuries I did without was a can opener that actually worked.

At the beginning I had one but it eventually got old and wouldn't spin anymore (who knew a little household oil probably would have solved that) so I threw it away. And because I really couldn't justify spending almost $10! on a can opener I bought one at the Dollar Store. (I know, you get what you pay for).

Well it broke, almost right away. Probably after the third can. (It wouldn't rotate around the can anymore.) But I couldn't afford to spend more money on another one so I made do. I would just clamp it down on the can rim which does break through the can and I would open it up, move it a little and clamp down again, over and over until the lid broke off. Sad right? It kind of made cooking take longer but it worked.

Looking back I'm sure I probably could have asked my mom if I could borrow $10 and get one but it never occurred to me. I probably even had a spare $10 at points but I probably always spent it on things I felt were more important. Basically I just justified that I had something that did the job and I could make do.

I did eventually remember that I had an old one in my camping gear and pulled it out but it was super hard to cut with and spin. I generally hurt my hand or finger every time I used it.

When Wes and I got married someone WONDERFUL (I'm honestly not sure who but they are loved) got us a gift card to Bed Bath and Beyond! I totally knew what I was going to do with it!

When I opened the first can with my new can opener I'm pretty sure I did a little dance and laughed out loud. The thing was so dang smooth! And easy to use and the handles didn't dig into my hand because they were soft and I didn't have to use all my strength to keep the can rotating!

It was the BEST day ever! I even had Wes come out and give it a try! It was so, so, so wonderful!

And that is all. My sad little story had a very happy ending and I'm pleased to say that my awesome can opener still works and is wonderful and fills me with happiness every time I use it.

Too bad I didn't take a picture of it. It is pretty amazing and I'm grateful for it! :)

I promise tomorrow won't be about kitchen stuff.

Gratitude is a Good Attitude (Day 2)

Day 2

I am grateful for my frying pans.

You might be thinking really, pans?

But I am.

Our three smaller frying pans have been in seriously sad, SAD shape for a long time.

They were all warped and so when I needed to cook with them (every night) I had to prop them up with something under their handle so that they would actually get warm in more than one place.

Also they originally were non-stick but after years of use they seemed to need almost half a can (little bit exaggerated) of cooking spray on every use.

Did I mention that the handles were loose on some of them and the screws were warped so they didn't actually truly tighten anymore? Yep. They were fancy.

With meals burning (because of the sticking issue not entirely because I'm a poor cook) and growing fear of the handles breaking off and the pans teetering on the hot elements they were starting to become almost unusable.

Anyways, this year for my birthday I used some of my birthday money and bought myself seriously needed new pans.

When I told my cooking guru of a sister that I got new pans she said, "There's nothing like QUALITY cookware."

I'm not sure my pans from Ross are "Quality" but they do sit flat on the heating elements and they are still non-sticking, non-stick pans!

Check out these beauties! Yes, they aren't even matching.

(See the two off white candles in the background that's what I used to use for props for the old pans. They can be retired now.) :)

Gratitude is a Good Attitude (Day 1)

I'm kind of excited that it is officially November!

I've been thinking about blogging about this for a while and now can finally start.

"Gratitude is a Good Attitude" is a saying we say all the time in our house to the kids. We want them to grow up being grateful for even the small things and not feel like they are entitled to things.

We say that phrase to them so often that I too should probably show some gratitude for all the things I've been blessed with.

So for each day of this month I'm going to write about something I'm grateful for.

This is going to be a good exercise for me, hopefully I can think of thirty things I am grateful for.

As a warning, some (okay most) of the things are going to be materialistic.

I'm not a ponderer by nature and honestly I'm probably not the deepest person you've ever met.

I like life, I like each day, I like to laugh and have fun but I don't really think too much about it. I just like to go and do and be done.

Basically I'm trying to explain that I probably won't be writing about being grateful for an amazing and profound thought I had and the different layers it had and how they somehow all connect to my life and mean something amazing and spectacular to me. :)

Hopefully that makes sense. If you know me this is probably not anything new to you. :)

Also these aren't in any particular order.

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Day 1

Since today is the first day of this little exercise I thought I would just get out of the way something that ranks high on my gratitude list.


I'm grateful for my family.

This one.


And these ones.


I'm grateful that we are all semi-normal and mostly drama free. I'm grateful that we like to get together and laugh and recall the silly things we did when we were younger. I am grateful for my new family that came with my sweet husband. I am beyond grateful that Wes and I both like our in-laws.

Yay for family!

Halloween Fun

Two weeks ago Wes and I decided we should try and branch out more and go participate in our ward Trunk or Treat.

But then we kind of struggled with costume ideas. We really wanted to dress up as Phineas and Ferb (sadly probably our favorite TV show) but we couldn't figure out how to make their heads so then we thought maybe we could be Dr. Doofensmirtz and Perry the Platypus but I vetoed it for two reasons, one it would be lame if no one recognized us for the Doctor and Perry, how many grown ups really watch that show? and two, I thought it would be pretty uncomfortable to be Perry all night. :)

So we decided to get back to our grass roots and we went as hippies!

Can I say that except for the drugs, partying and open love, oh and the no bra thing, I could probably be a hippy everyday. It was pretty fun for me.

For Wes' costume I picked out the brightest, rainbowiest material ever and laughed like an evil scientist the whole time I was making his costume just thinking about how far out it was going to be.
Frankly I'm surprised that he agreed to wear it.


But he did say that next year he gets to pick out the costumes...

Dear little Sadie was the cutest bunny EVER!



I kind of got her costume way before coming up with the hippie idea.

You can't really tell by this picture but we decked out Wes' truck to look like a Shag (Wes says I shouldn't call it that but I mean shag as in the carpet) mobile. It was pretty cool, we even made a groovin soundtrack to match our theme and played it in the truck.



I'm not sure what our ward members thought about us but we thought we were totally radical.

Pumpkins & Pre-Halloween Preparation

We went to Kruger farms this year to pick out our pumpkins. (I'm pretty sure everyone in the greater Northwest area went there this year, thanks to Groupon.com).

We went on a Monday, it was pretty fun to spend Family Home Evening together picking pumpkins and escaping the corn maze.

My cute little pumpkin by the pumpkin bin. She makes me smile.

Sadie and Wesley on the hay/tractor ride to the pumpkins.

Here Novalee is claiming her first pumpkin. There were several more claimed before she picked the best one, which also happened to be the smallest thing ever! :)

Here's probably another claimed and then rejected pumpkin.

We walked around A LOT. Wesley started getting nervous that we would miss the tractor ride back and hurried us all along.

Sadie loved walking around and looking at all the pumpkins. She is really good with new experiences, especially outdoor ones.


Jared's first pumpkin, again claimed and then rejected.

Jared is super friendly and seems to always find someone to hang out with wherever he goes. The pumpkin patch wasn't any different, except I'm pretty sure he chose this certain friend because she was cute. You can always tell when he is digging a girl because he gets very calm and he talks very smooth. I don't think he is going to have any problem with the ladies when he is older. :) Here he is helping the girl carry a pumpkin.


Caramel Apples. They were super delicious and I kept trying to have the kids "share" with mommy. When they kept refusing Wesley said, "Honey just let them eat their own apples." Haha, I guess I'm a piggy. :)







Novalee is buried in hay. We filmed her in it and she jumped out and yelled "Boo" it was super cute! :)




Today we got this really cool surprise in the mail. A package from Grandma and Grandpa Crockett filled with all sorts of Halloween goodies! The kids were surprised and we were grateful that there was very little candy in the box. :) Good job Grandma and Grandpa Crockett!

Wes is super cool in his new glasses.

We wanted to thank Wes' family for the box and show that the things inside were put to good use. So we took a picture. Happy Halloween! :)

Tonight we carved our pumpkins. Jared carved his with Wesley. It was neat to have him actually be old enough to sit long enough to actually help. He carved most of the top and he drew the design. His is the ghost. Novalee and I were supposed to be working together but she decided at the beginning that I could have the big pumpkin (not shown) and she would do the little one. I drew the picture of what she wanted and she carved it. Pretty great!
Mine wasn't in the last picture because I thought I would be cool and try something different this year. I drew a picture of a My Little Pony since it was supposed to be Novalee's and my pumpkin. But I decided not to carve all the way through. Well that took forever and I had to keep thinning it out to make the light shine through. Novalee was in bed and asleep well before I finished. Kind of anti climatic. But I'm still proud of my handy work. :)
Here are all of the pumpkins together. Mines not in the front JUST because it rocks, I'm not that childish...well maybe...I do like it a lot. :) But it was also getting late and I'm pretty sure Wes was hoping I would hurry and finish already and move on with my life so I didn't bother arranging them. :)
Sadie wasn't feeling very well tonight. Which is very sad but on a positive note it does make her super cuddly, which we don't get to enjoy as much of now that she can walk around and explore.

We are very excited for Halloween. We have been having a lot of fun getting ready for it. We hope everyone has a safe and spooky Halloween. :)

Purple Bunk Beds for the Purple Room

This is how it used to look. You can kind of get the idea, it was once all primary colors.


I can't believe how little Jared was! He is such a little cutie!

Anyways, these bunk beds have served their purpose for a long, long time. Up until this last move the two older kids have shared a room and so primary colors were perfect.

But now they are Sadie and Novalee's and the colors just weren't right for their purple room.

So after sanding, and spray painting and more spray painting. 30+ cans of paint later they look like this. I like their room. :) It's just so girly!


Yay! Now the bunk beds are inside and not against the back of the house AND we don't look (too) white trash anymore!

Wesley finished this project (so he should get some credit too), after we found out we were pregnant with baby number 4 and I was too paranoid to spray paint anymore...even if it was outside and I had a mask. You never can be too careful, right? :) So thank you Wesley for all your help. You are great! :)

Two "Practically New" Chairs

My Step-dad, Larry works at Waste Management. He used to work a residential route. On that route he would find AMAZING things! Sometimes brand new things in the box (ex. The Eddie Bauer Full Size Baby Stroller I currently use) and sometimes things that worked just as if they were new.

He would always come home super excited from work, like it was Christmas morning and declare that he found the COOLEST thing today "practically new!"

(Sometimes we had to chuckle a little at his expense because the things he was super excited about weren't exactly "practically new.")

With that said, in our family whenever any of us find a cool thing for free or really cheap, we think of Larry and say we found it "practically new!"

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I feel like that sufficiently explains the title of the post. :)

About a month ago we scored the best bed for Jared. We knew that eventually Sadie would grow out of her crib and need a real bed and Jared would be giving up his bed (that converts into a bunk bed with Novalee's).

So when I saw this bed sitting outside the neighbor's house next to my grandma's I just had to have it regardless of all the kitty stickers from the early 90s and the bright pink drawer handles. I'm not sure what the cost was...my grandma was the one after repeated attempts, to actually get the neighbors at home and then of course she told me not to worry about the price. Thank you grandma. :) I'm going to call it a deal, hopefully it was.

After new handles and a little Goo Gone it looked "practically new."

It is so sweet! It has great storage and made a ton of extra room in Jared's room.

I'm kind of torn about this next picture. Yes, I would have liked to have a picture that shows Jared's room completely perfect and clean but really in all honestly, this is how it looks 90% of the time. Plus I had no desire to clean his room just for a picture. At least you get to see how cool this bed is.



It also has a computer desk and so he needed a computer chair.

I found this one at a thrift store in Forest Grove for $3.50. What a beauty! :) Who can resist weird stains on furniture where your bottom goes? I mean it's just too tempting. ;)



I just took off the old material and replaced it with new blue pleather.



Those old chairs are sturdy! This one was from 1973! The material is actually held on by little chunks of metal they notched out in points during the original construction. Pretty cool!

Jared's new bed is also his dresser. So we got rid of the old one. But with it gone there was a whole wall in his room without furniture. (If you grew up with my family you would know that is just not allowed. Clutter, clutter, clutter is the family motto.)

Anyways, we decided he needed another chair. Wes said maybe a bean bag...but they are expensive and I could totally see Jared bringing it downstairs all the time to play on and I would have to carry it back up. Everyone loves picking up after their kids, right? ;)

Anyways, I got this chair at the same thrift store for the same price.

In case you can't tell, the color is a bright fuchsia. When I showed it to Jared I'm pretty sure he wasn't very pleased. But he liked the idea of the shape of it and how it rolls.

I do have to say that the color didn't seem to stop him from playing on it during the month it took me to change the color. :)

Anyways, I finally finished it today!




It's pretty great if I do say so myself!

(Yes there is pink still showing from the material underneath. Oh well, nothings perfect). :)