Happy 6 to Cole

2 weeks old, Flowood, MS 

Winter Quarters, Nebraska

Cole & BK, July 4

Yellowstone

San Diego Zoo

San Diego

Destin, FL

Destin.  Cole got mad and threw a tantrum.  He laid his head down and sobbed.  Then he fell asleep.

Skyline Drive

Scofield

Hawaii

Disney World, 11/2010

First day of Kindergarten

Happy Birthday Nan!!

Fairview

Jackson, MS 2004

Vicksburg, MS 2/2005

Nan and Halle, Jackson MS  2/2005

Nan, Summer, Kelli (and Cole)  August 2005

Nan and BK 8/2007

Nan & Summer 10/2008

Maui 2009

Summer & Nan, flight to the Big Island

Nan at the beach.  Big Island. 1/2011

Happy Veteran's Day

1/11/2004

I'm a hermit

We ventured out to the big city (that would be PROVO) on Saturday.  We saw a movie...Puss in Boots.  It was good.  Good enough.  Good enough that I almost didn't fall asleep.  Ran some errands.  got some gas.     Then we ended up at Sam's Club.  We needed milk.  And vegetables.  And samples.  Oh, the people.  People everywhere.  Traffic everywhere.  I came home.  Took some ibuprofen.  And checked my Amazon Prime Account.  I discovered that my account was to expire that very day.  So, I renewed my Amazon Prime Membership and vowed to never leave the house again until some time in January.  Maybe February if the weather is bad.
I'm serious about the Amazon Prime thing.

Here is the Scoop...it costs like $79 ish.

I do all of my shopping on Amazon.  Mostly.  In the past year I have bought such things as books, emergency kit thermal sleeping bags, flax seed, zone bars, 1 gallon of Elmer's glue for $7.00, bakers twine, and the list goes on.

If I purchase something that is "Prime" then I get free 2-day shipping with most products and no minimum purchase.

Every time I go to make a purchase, I always "Price Check" against Amazon.  9 times out 10, Amazon is the better deal.

And I can preorder new releases and they will arrive on my door step the very day that they come out.    And they will charge the lowest price available from the time I preorder until the time it ships.  I got a .01 credit for the last book I preordered because the price dropped a penny from when I placed my order.  So totally worth it.

Rick bought my Christmas present last year from Amazon.  (Camera).  The lens cover wasn't opening very well and with time, it kept getting worse.  I went to the amazon page, printed a copy of my receipt, a copy of the warranty, and a shipping label.  I took my camera to the Post Office and a couple of weeks later my camera came back.  All fixed and good as new.  All I had to pay was the $9 postage.

I'm pretty sure that I got my money's worth in the past 12 months for the Amazon Prime membership.  Although I'm sure some people purchase way more than I did and really take advantage of that 2-day shipping.  You can sign up for automatic shipments (diaper delivery) and all sorts of fun stuff.

So, if you are not sure about doing the amazon thing, ask me.  I'll convince you.  Or you can try it for 30 days for free.  Just don't forget to cancel, that's how they get ya!

And if you do shop on Amazon, could you do me a favor and click through from the Mapleton Elementary School Website.  The PTA will get 4 to 7 % of all of the sales that click through from their page.  Awesome.  Thanks.

Here is the link to the Mapleton Elementary PTA.  Then just look for the Amazon arrow...

At least I'm not begging you all to buy stupid wrapping paper, right?

So, no Black Friday shopping for me.  I will be in my PJ's.  Eating pumpkin pie leftovers.  Or whatever.  But, I will not be at a mall.  or Walmart.  or anywhere crazy.  thanks amazon.

staples and a competition

 Cole loves his tools.

Last week he found my little multitool pocket knife thing that I took to girls camp.

I let him poke holes in my big black x-ray machine costume all afternoon.

Rick was at work and I texted him that we would probably be visiting him something during his shift because I was letting Cole play with a pocketknife.  

It turned out OK.  No blood at all.

Another "tool" that Cole loves is this:

He stapled together all of my note cards, scrap paper, grocery lists, bills, book covers, newspaper ads, and any other paper item he could find in the house.  

He gave Rick and I our own stack of stapled notecards and told us they were books for us to draw pictures in.

In other news...

We are in the thick of the "box tops" war at school.

Cole's teacher won last year for having his class collect the most box tops.

Nothing like healthy competition because Cole has caught the fever and thinks that every meal should include something that came from a box with a "box top".

So, if you have any of these guys sitting on your shelves,

Send them to Cole!!

Halloween 2011

This is Summer LAST week dressed as Taylor Swift.

I must confess we got that skirt at DI about 5 months ago.  

It was $6.  Which I thought was too much considering the fact that it was too "big" and too "glittery" to actually wear in public.

But it did make for a nice costume.  She only had to wear her hair in curlers for 48 hours to get the look.

This was Halloween evening.

Sadie and I dressed up as 1950's housewives.

I asked Summer to take pictures of everyone and everything since Sadie and I were busy making homemade donuts for the neighborhood.

Awesome.

Summer took 3 photos.

Didn't even get one of her siblings.  or the homemade donuts.

I might have to dress them up in their costumes and make-up tonight so that somewhere down the road a few years when the kids want to look back on pictures of 2011, they will actually believe me that I let them dress up and beg the neighbors for candy.

Rick participated in the festivities by dressing up  adjusting the temperature of the hot chocolate.

And speaking of temperature, we couldn't have asked for better weather.

When the evening started, we should have been serving ice water instead of hot chocolate.

But, as the evening wore on, more and more ghosts, goblins, witches, etc. appreciated a nice, warm cup of hot chocolate.

Here is a picture of the flyer that we passed out to the neighbors...

Apparently not everyone gets my sense of humor.

I really confused a lot of people with the "costume check".

So much so, that most of them didn't even keep reading to the funny parts.

oh well.

This morning I was getting Cole some breakfast. 

(Cereal, which is really just code for a bowl of sugar, but we were running late since we were up all night eating...sugar)

Cole asked me to wait before I poured the milk on his sugar cereal.

I asked why, and he said that he needed to finish his chocolate bar and he didn't want the cereal to get soggy.

His poor Kindergarten teacher...

Time to take down the decorations and move on to Christmas Thanksgiving.